


Stealing His Heart

by Kaoupa



Series: The Hybrid's Heart [1]
Category: Persona 5, Steven Universe - Fandom
Genre: Cognitions are not quite People, F/M, Metaverse (Persona 5), Metaverse Cognitions, No beta reader, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Phantom Thieves of Hearts - Freeform, Steven has a Palace, Steven has issues, but they're close, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2021-04-12
Packaged: 2021-04-25 18:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22326229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoupa/pseuds/Kaoupa
Summary: Steven gets a... card? Letter? Postcard? He doesn't know. (Steven hasn't been up to date on the news on Earth for a few years).
Series: The Hybrid's Heart [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1817323
Comments: 67
Kudos: 187





	1. Our Card

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I first played Persona 5 recently. It is a great game, and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it yet.
> 
> I don't own Persona 5 or Steven Universe.

“What’s this?” Steven had never gotten a postcard before, and he’d be the first to admit it. The strange letter like piece of paper he was holding didn’t seem to qualify as one, but it was the closest thing he could think of, since he’d gotten it in the mailbox.

“Take… your heart?” More confused now, as he walked down the steps towards Little Homeschool and Little Homeworld, Steven flipped it over, absently preparing himself for an attempt on his life by summoning his shield.

_To Steven Universe, “Prince” of Homeworld and Emptiness,_

_Your actions have not gone unnoticed. Your placing of others over yourself and the disregard of your own life and goals. The ignorance of your nonhuman family to your troubles and their failure to act or realize their shortcomings without your aid has not gone unnoticed or unacted on by us._

_And while their intentions and yours cannot be placed at fault, the problems within you and them have compounded on themselves over and over onto you, starting from the treatment you received at the hands of Gemkind, and their encouragement, direct or otherwise, to place their issues over your own and ignore your own problems and your human side, to focus solely upon the physical self and neglecting the mental self._

_This blame cannot be placed upon you, for seeking to protect others even at the cost of yourself, or for the problems that others have directly or indirectly made yours. During the time that Homeworld remained a threat, it many have even been necessary, if not to such an extreme._

_But the need to place others above yourself to the detriment of yourself and the problems you do have has become no longer necessary, and your belief otherwise is consuming you from the inside out. Your nobility in freeing the hearts of others at any cost has chained down your own heart, and we cannot let you suffer any longer._

_We will take your distorted desires without fail from your heart, and free you from the chains of your soul so that you may see and live clearly once more._

_Your friends,_

_The Phantom Thieves of Hearts._

Puzzled, Steven just shrugged (he had been falling behind on the news lately), and placed the card into his pocket.

On another plane of existence, someone the same had a very different feeling.

_I can't... everyone needs me..._

From the top of the lighthouse, a hundred feet above him, two people watched, a pair of binoculars in their hands.

And Connie Maheswaran smiled a smile that ran deep with relief, as Ann Takamaki pulled out a phone, and entered a text message.

_We're good to go._


	2. Entry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven sees something.

Steven knew that he was pretty early for his guest lecture speech at Little Homeschool, but it wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet were all busy, his garden was… not doing badly? But he had learned to be careful about spending too much time there so his body fluids didn’t create another plant lifeform (that would leave him behind).

Bismuth was probably busy in her forge, but she never really went to see him anyways. He… wasn’t really sure what she was doing anymore, really. He’d hung out with Lapis recently… well, as far as going to see “Freckles” Lapis together with her constituted hanging out. Peridot was super busy, taking care of a few of his plants that she’d asked him for after learning his powers could “make more Pumpkins!”

And he wasn’t going to set foot on Homeworld to see Spinel and the Diamonds unless he knew for a fact that he had at least a month to waste, because that was the minimum amount of time they’d probably demand he spend there.

And Connie was… Was… Standing over there with a bunch of people he’d never seen before?

“Connie!” He felt himself grin a little as he dashed over towards her. Maybe he could ask her to introduce him to them and he could make-

“-Hospital!”

And then, they all vanished.

Steven skidded to a halt in shock, looking around quickly to make sure - no, she wasn’t anywhere in sight. And he was pretty sure that she hadn’t texted him that she would be coming over today… she had been coming over a lot last week to hang out with him, though! Maybe she’d hang out with him more soon…

Seriously, though, had he been hallucinating?

“Everyone ready?”

Nods came from around the group.

“You’ve got point today, Sqay. You know him best.” Joker gave a nod.

“All right… Phantom Thieves, let’s roll out!”

“Oh! Would you like to watch Transformers with me later?”

“Sure thing, Noir!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For what Sqay means... look it up.


	3. How We got There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's show how we got to this point...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight alteration to the story in this chapter, so that I can intertwine "The Grail's Desires" with "Stealing his Heart", if I decide to. Mementos has "had it's threat removed", instead of destroyed.

Three Weeks Ago…

“Agh…”

Ann Takamaki was not in the best mood.

She’d been invited to the United States with her parents, for crying out loud! She was on vacation from Phantom Thievery, and high school too! So why was she feeling… ugh… she didn’t even know how to say what she was feeling.

She felt… well… she felt like she should be doing something.

Why? The Thieves had been doing super well, recently. Granted, a lot of the “rotten adults” in Tokyo, as Ryuji put it, had been avoiding doing things that might put them on their radar. Which meant that a lot of stonewalled programs for the public good that should have been getting more attention than they had been getting were actually receiving that attention.

So recently, at Futaba’s request, the Phantom Thieves had taken to helping people who were feeling suicidal like she’d been. Thankfully, none of them had been so far gone that they’d created a Palace for themselves.

There hadn’t been any major targets since they’d removed the threat of Mementos for good, and that was really a relief to her. Nearly dying in a Palace or being wiped from existence even temporarily was not something she wanted to risk becoming used to.

But her modeling had been going well lately too. Enough that her parents… well, they’d been proud of her, for how well she had been doing with her life, and all the new friends she’d made (in the Thieves, not that they knew that).

So, they’d decided that on their next trip, they’d be taking her with them for a beachside vacation, and found a small town on the east coast of the United States that was more than an hour out of the way of the average highway and seemed to have a strangely dead tourist industry. A beachside vacation with nobody bothering her was still super appealing.

At least, it had.

Until they realized that nobody was willing to give them a ride out there.

Why? She wasn’t sure. All they’d discovered, to their shock, was that every rental company and taxi service in the area seemed to be unwilling to give them even a single way out there.

So now, she and her parents were staying in a motel in the downtown section of the city they’d made a final stop at before going to Beach City, and they were having no luck whatsoever so far.

Sighing, she pulled out her phone, a text to the group chat already in mind.

AT: Well, this sucks.

FS: What’s happening? You haven’t left for Beach City yet.

Ann didn’t even blink at the implication that Futaba knew where she was. The Phantom Thieves had long since accepted that she’d bugged all of their phones - and they could live with it, as long as she didn’t tell anyone what they were looking at.

AT: We can’t. My parents didn’t bring a car, and none of the rental companies are willing to help us go there.

FS: Drat. Wish I could PH my way over to you, i’d get you there in a hurry… but that would get me a lot of weird questions. Plus, there’s an ocean in my way… I can’t move myself THAT far.

AT: Yeah… wish us luck. Why are you up this early? I was expecting I’d get a reply in about three or four hours, it’s only noon here.

FS: Sojiro made me go to bed early after I stayed up late yesterday. So I woke up early too - i’m used to not getting sleep, if I don’t need to.

AT: Ah. Well, I guess we might be going somewhere besides Beach City - or just taking a bus there. Ugh. The public transportation system here stinks compared to Japan’s. Mom says that there’s no bus heading down there until the weekend.

FS: Don’t worry! I have a few algorithms ready for situations like this. It’ll take me a while to adjust them for where you are, but I can probably find an Uber or something that’s been to Beach City before and can take all of you there.

Ann felt a grin spreading over her face, and heat spreading between her fingers. She swiftly forced down the flames that were starting to form.

AT: You’re a lifesaver, Futaba!

“Mom, Dad!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the Phantom Thieves have real-life superpowers as well as superpowers in the Metaverse (which still exists, obviously, just without Mementos). Yes, I do really dislike how SU portrayed humanity as more or less defenseless against Homeworld without the CGs (and also how gems are seemingly incapable of change without outside assistance), why do you ask?
> 
> On a side note, look up "Superpowered" and "The Many Quirks of Phantom Thievery", which are where the idea of the Phantom Thieves having superpowers in the real world as well came from (Superpowered is shorter and funnier, "Quirks" covers a longer time period and is more serious).


	4. Overlooking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beach City isn't that noticeable, to most of the world. Beach City prefers it that way.

Futaba sighed.

It should REALLY not have taken two hours for her to find a taxi-person that came from Beach City - it had taken her far too long to figure out that the typical “Uber” cars weren’t going out there, for some reason.

She’d tried to look into that further, but as it turned out, the information she was looking for wasn’t on the main network.

She might have been a real-life Barbara Gordon with added superpowers, but she needed her computer hacking targets to have a connection to the internet if she wanted to get on. So, for now, she had no idea why Beach City was seemingly partly “offline”. And someone, whoever they were, had gone to a lot of trouble to keep the town off the world’s news websites as well.

But if nothing else, she might be finding out why soon.

Jenny Pizza, whoever she was, was a blessing.

“So, how often do people come to Beach City anyways?” Ann’s father asked, looking out the window at the mostly-deserted road. (It had been several minutes since they’d seen another car - Ann’s only real theory on why was that Beach City was more than an hour away from the nearest town, and it seemed the road hadn’t been repaired in the last decade or so).

“Well, we don’t really advertise that much. Mostly, we’re local business and stuff - we’ve got people who come every year, but mostly it’s just the repeat customers. Usually people who come either don’t come again or come all the time.” Jenny replied. “The hotels and prices are fairly low, and we’ve got an amusement park that’s pretty cheap too - and Mr Smiley’s doing a lot better with all the new help.”

“Yes, I could hardly believe how low the prices were for the hotel stay here - a beach this far away from everything should probably be far more popular, I would imagine. Especially with almost nobody going here.”

“Well, we had… issues, of a sort, for a long time. We still do, but it’s not as much of a problem now.” Jenny’s careful tone of voice indicated she was searching for the correct terms to use. “Well… now’s probably not the best time to discuss it, though.” She started carefully riding the brake as she spoke, seeing an upcoming turn in the road. “You’ll see when we get there, it’s really hard to miss.”

And for next twenty minutes, as Jenny focused on driving, Ann and her parents wondered what she meant.

“Okay, Beach City is coming up soon!” Jenny said aloud, interrupting the conversation Ann’s parents had been having and Ann’s text conversation on her phone with her friends. “We’ve been expanding a lot recently, due to an inflow of new residents ‘bout… three years ago, now.”

Before any of the Takamaki’s could respond, Jenny was slowing down, and pulling over to the side of the road.

The look on her face as she turned around had Ann starting to already focus heat to her hands.

“Okay, and those residents? They’re… very private, got it? No photos. Messages are okay, we can’t stop that. But photos are a no go. Like, they’ve got a ton of lawyers and the police there have no issues with confiscating your phone and deleting any pictures, you got it? They want to keep to themselves, they don’t want anyone barging in on them, and a lot of people besides them want to keep it that way.”

Her gaze sharpened. “You don’t like that, we can turn around right here.”

Ann felt her curiosity grow. Her parents looked surprised, but nodded. “We can handle these terms. We came here for privacy ourselves.”

“Great!” Jenny turned back around, and the car went back into drive. “And with that being the case… enjoy your stay here in Beach City!”


	5. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann meets someone for the second time.

Ann tossed and turned as she slept - the hotel had been cheap, dinner at “Fish Stew Pizza” had been tasty, and Futaba had set up a sort of “clock link” in the group chat so that everyone could remember what time it was here in America and so that she could remember what time it was back in Japan. Life was going well so far.

Life was good. She could just relax for once.

After putting her life at risk multiple times in people’s Palaces, a beach holiday without anything weird sounded amazing.

“Ugh… huh?” As she felt herself wake up, Ann felt… weird. Like… Like she was wearing her Panther suit.

“Greetings to you a second time, Ann Takamaki. It is a pleasure to see you here.”

She knew that voice. Not well - but the strange tone, the feeling that came with it… it had happened to her only once before.

Her eyes opened faster than they would normally when she was getting up, and looked down her body.

Yup. She was all Panthered up.

“Uh… hi, I guess?” Ann wasn’t sure how to reply besides that greeting, and started to get up and out of her bed.

Then, she stopped and took in the room.

She definitely wasn’t in Beach City (or Tokyo) anymore.

The room was… enormous. The long-nosed man… Igor… was sitting at a desk in the rough middle, and the girl with a Shadow’s eyes, Lavenza, was standing next to him.

But they were only part of it!

The room was… it was awesome. It looked awesome. It was so high up! She could see for miles, and the places below… wow. It was weird. It was like Tokyo, but… not.

Even if she couldn’t see the people inside the buildings, she could see as though she was at ground level somehow, and there were so many trees! And… it didn’t look as crowded, at least from here - houses and streets were just so open, and nature was everywhere. It was like the parks had invaded the city, and two-thirds of the population and their houses had left to go elsewhere!

“Uh, how do I-“ Ann began to ask, only to squeal in joy as she looked at the room. There were SO MANY SWEETS! Licorice, pancakes, crepes - all of the batters were premixed, and ready for her to spoon out and make herself with whatever she wanted - and she was pretty sure that you couldn’t gain weight in the Metaverse (at least, not too much - this place was weird). Oh, and there were pictures, too! Of her parents, and Shiho, and the rest of the Thieves, even! If there had ever been a room that she wanted to live in more, she couldn’t remember what it looked like. And… trams? “What… is this place?” She asked in a baffled tone, looking around.

“This is the Velvet Room from your own point of view, Ann Takamaki.” Lavenza spoke up from besides Igor, catching her off guard.

“The… Velvet Room? I thought that place was a prison! You sure this isn’t just some… Sun Room, or something?” She asked, stealing another look outside as she walked over to the sweets.

An amused chuckle came from the long-nosed man, and Lavenza audibly giggled for a second. “Hardly. The Velvet Room reorients itself each time a new guest arrives - a reflection of the state of their heart. You feel free, as though the world is wonderful, at your feet and the paths ahead are clear to you. But… you have clearly not truly decided which path forward awaits you, I see.”

“I… huh.” Ann took a look around. “This… is my heart?”

“Indeed, as you are now. A good position in life, and many possible paths forward, all good, and friends and family who care for you… some more than others, but still.” Igor smiled. “Had you arrived here a year or two ago, I can only imagine what your heart’s state would be in…”

“A year - wait! Was… Ren’s heart was represented by that prison?”

Igor chuckled. “ You are wiser than others think you. Perhaps at first, yes. Perhaps it was indeed his feelings on the situation he had been forced into - a seemingly hopeless place, with nobody he knew. Until he met you and your friends, that is… but for the Velvet Room, the first impression of your heart for a new guest is all-important. His heart was changed in the end, truly. Or perhaps it is simply because of its proximity at the time to the prison of the mind that was Mementos… But that is not why we are here.”

“Why did you… call me here then, I guess?” Ann wouldn’t lie and claim she didn’t feel nervous. After the end of the events with Yaldabaoth, Ren had sat down with them and explained everything, from the Igor impersonator and how he’d been given some (fairly-unclear) directions by the imposter and the Metaverse Navigator, to the Velvet Room itself, except for the part where its appearance reflected his heart. This… person… (considering he’d created Morgana, she was ninety-eight percent sure human was not the right word), seemed to be benevolent, and he’d helped them, but everything about him was unclear at best.

“A soul is at risk. While your vacation will be enlightening in many ways, without any doubt, it will not be without threats to you and those you care for, and those who need assistance.” Igor stated calmly, smile never leaving his face.

“A soul - wait, you want me to be a Phantom Thief again?! I’m supposed to be on vacation…” Ann moaned.

“Indeed. And there will be plenty of time for you to rest and relax - and the one you must aid will not be unreceptive of it, when you are finished.”

Before Ann could ask what he meant, she heard something. Like an alarm clock.

“It seems our time is up for now. Do not worry, this is not the last time we will speak. Once you have learned more, we will come to speak with you again.” Igor replied, before he chuckled. “It is somewhat funny, since normally only a user of the Wild Card could meet us here. But all will be revealed to you - you must simply work some things out for yourself. And know this - you are extraordinary, regardless of what you may think of yourself, and we have nothing but faith in you. And your time to decide who you are is not yet over.”

Ann was unsure for a few seconds what she should say about that, and she was about to open her mouth to ask.

Then, for the first time in her life that she could really remember, she felt… wakefulness… overtake her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. I haven't updated this in a while.


	6. Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven finally gets some people who know what he's been through and are willing to tell him something he needed to hear.
> 
> This chapter takes place after the Palace heist has finished, and Steven has learned what happened.

Steven felt… lighter. That was the only way he could describe it - though it was really fitting, considering what had happened that day. Even if it wasn’t with a therapist, finally being freed of the better part of years worth of anger, self-doubt and self-hate, the distortions that had consumed his heart and soul…

Well, that was it. Words couldn’t really describe the rest of it.

“Hey, Steven. Are you feeling better?”

“…Tons. Thanks, Ann.” He replied, smiling at his new friend. Telling the truth when he said he felt better was such a relief.

Next to her, Futaba said something in Japanese. Steven mentally cursed his lack of knowledge in non english and gem language (apparently, language was universal in the Metaverse).

Then, his phone beeped. Blinking, he pulled it out.

Wait, when had Futaba gotten his phone number?

FS: Hey. Since Ann’s the only one who speaks English, I thought this might work better for everyone while we’re over here if this was how we talked.

Steven blinked, then started typing. Around him, there was a sudden chorus of people pulling out their phones.

SU: Shouldn’t I be seeing Japanese characters?

FS: Yeah, I put an auto-translator on you and Connie’s phones in Messaging.

Steven was quiet for several seconds before he started typing again.

SU: …When did this happen?

RS: Trust me man, don’t ask her that sort of stuff.

RS: Our local internet tyrant’s answers will only scare you.

FS: Why, thank you.

HO: But regardless, it is a relief to see you are better, Steven-kun.

HO: I… know that you do not know much of anything about us, but we unwittingly saw a great deal of your life’s darker moments, inside your Palace.

Steven winced.

YK: Indeed. I am told that it may have been somewhat of an invasion of privacy, but… rest assured, you will find no judgement here.

FS: Yeah. For the childhood trauma stuff, your family leaving you or just sucking in general…

RS: Or getting blamed for stuff that WASN’T YOUR FAULT, and having to deal with shit you shouldn’t have had to…

MN: We said we were sorry!

RS: I’m allowed to give you shit for what you gals did after Shido went down and you know it!

FS: Moving on… but even the Palace, well. Trust me, I had one too. You wouldn’t know about it from these guys.

MN: The point is… inner darkness, past mistakes, problems in your personal life… we have a lot of our own. I tried to blackmail the rest of the thieves into helping me before I joined.

RA: Yeah. I met everyone here because I got falsely accused of assaulting a drunk guy after he tried to abduct somebody, and got put on probation because of it.

YK: My mentor and foster father plagiarized from me and his many other students for years before we stole his heart, and was responsible for letting my mother die.

YK: And due to a lack of knowledge of… certain events in Ann’s past, I was going to have her model nude for me without knowing that she had undergone a great deal of sexual harassment about something very similar. I am amazed she was even willing to talk to me so quickly after we became teammates.

HO: My own father was going to sell me into an abusive arranged marriage before we changed his heart… and then he was assassinated before much could come of it.

HO: I was the one who asked everyone to change his heart originally, too. The assassination was already planned before I even asked, but it took me some time to learn that and to forgive myself for my self-perception that I had caused his death.

AT: The point is… it’s horrible that you had to go through all of that. You shouldn’t have had to handle everything for everyone else in the first place. And well… we shouldn’t have had to either.

RS: Yeah…

RS: I mean, it’s a blast doing a lot of that, but… it sucks that all those rotten adults were doing it at all!

HO: I enjoy my time as a thief, and particularly cutting down Shadows - it is therapeutic. But what the Shadows represent… the distortions and darkness within our own hearts, it remains horrific that anyone would reach that point.

HO: Taking care of your Treasure may have solved your problems for now, but it does not remove the fact that those problems should not have been yours to deal with.

HO: Or that you should not have had to deal with them at all.

FS: Yeah. Palaces seem to mean that you’re either screwing over other people, or you’re screwing over yourself. Or both, sometimes.

Steven winced.

CM: Er, it was only the second one for you, Steven! I mean… you were hurting.

CM: I should have done something sooner. Even if you were pushing people away, I should have at least noticed. I’m sorry it took me so long to do something.

Steven felt his eyes start to water a little. As he typed, though, Connie put her phone in her pocket and walked over to him, before leaning down.

Then, she hugged him.

“I love you…” Connie muttered, her eyes welling over like his. “So much…”

Steven’s self-restraint broke. And as he brought his own arms around her, he broke down in tears.

He wouldn’t be able to tell if you asked him if they came from joy, sorrow, something else entirely, or more than one.


	7. ALIENS!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann learns that supernatural events don't happen just on Earth.

**20 Days until Palace Raid.**

“What’s that up there?”

Ann hadn’t really taken that much of a look at the area “over” Beach City last night - she’d been too focused on eating and then going to bed. That morning, she had noticed the massive statue pretty quickly, and she’d quickly decided she was a fan of it.

Combined with the many women walking around who she’d never seen from anything but a distance, looked somewhat… off… and often seemed to have dyed their skin, hair, or both?

Ann was wondering if the Metaverse could influence people like that if they were exposed to it for too long (and if getting Shadow-eyes like Lavenza’s or a nose like Igor’s might be in her future if she went into enough Palaces), when someone popped up right in front of them.

Someone with dark yellow-red skin that, at a single glance, she knew was in no way dyed, and a crab claw for one of her hands.

“Hello! My name is Bixbite, and I will be your server today! How can I help you?”

Ann took the initiative to talk back faster than her parents did. Being in the Metaverse, along with all the weird things she had seen on TV, meant she was slightly better equipped mentally to handle this sort of thing.

“We heard you make… breakfast pizzas?”

“Yes! Thin crust breakfast calzones. With butter and cinnamon sprinkled on them and then folded in half for dessert ones, or with egg, mushroom, and onions cooked separately before they’re inserted into the calzone and then the oven.” Bixbite looked pleased. “What should I get you?”

“Er… a calzone with eggs and onions, please. No mushrooms.” Ann politely requested, even as her stomach began moaning at the lack of sugar.

Part of her was still trying to protest how improbable it was that this woman could have a seemingly-real crab claw and have nobody really comment on it. If they were used to it and treating her nicely, that was a good sign, but…

Aliens.

Little Homeworld was populated by dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of fucking aliens.

Ann would have reflected a little more on how she should have seen this coming - Bixbite’s crab claw and Jenny’s warning had already told her that someone around here was doing their best to keep something secret.

But as she looked over the small city in front of her - “Little Homeworld” was clearly meant to show that gems were somehow even worse than humanity at naming things - she was too busy focusing on the fucking aliens.

Not literally, but still. The last time she’d been this stunned by anything had been when she had awakened her Persona after visiting Kamoshida’s pervert-castle Palace.

AT: Guys? You’re never gonna believe this, but we have made contact.

FS: Er, yeah? That’s why I set up this channel.

AT: Go to bed, Futaba. I wasn’t expecting a reply for another eight hours or so.

FS: Too bored to sleep.

FS: What’s happening?

AT: Aliens. Take a look through that camera app.

FS: ...What?

FS: HOLY IZANAGI YOU ARE NOT JOKING!?! WHAT THE HELL?!

FS: I NEED MORE! TAKE PICTURES! VIDEOS! NOW!!

Ann winced, Jenny’s orders already coming back. And even if she wasn’t prone to listening to adults when they tried to order her around anymore, if this got out…

These aliens, from what she could see, just wanted privacy. She couldn’t ruin that for them.

AT: Sorry, Futaba. I promised that I’d keep this private.

FS: WHAT?! OKAY, YOU CANNOT JUST TELL ME THAT ALIENS EXIST AND NOT GIVE ME ALIENS! I CANNOT GO TO THE USA WITH HOW MUCH MONEY SOJIRO MAKES! GAGGLE MAPS DOES NOT FEATURE THAT SETTLEMENT ON IT! I CANNOT HACK A SATELLITE TO SPY WITHOUT SOMEONE NOTICING! THIS IS MY ONLY CHANCE!!

AT: Couldn’t you just hitch a ride on my phone and watch everything or set up a recording function?

FS: ...excuse me.

AT: One thing. PROMISE that you won’t leak this. One of the locals told me explicitly that these people want privacy. And considering what they’re acting like, I doubt they’re malicious.

FS: Ugh, fine. I’ll let someone else tell the world about the existence of aliens… and gather more details! Learn more! I need answers!

AT: Go to bed, Futaba.

FS: FINE. You had better tell me more when I get up, though!!

Ann sighed as she hung up her phone, and started to look around. Her parents were still looking around in awe at the entire settlement - and in her mother's case... 

“Mom, no. Remember what Jenny said?” Ann shook her head. “They want to keep this quiet.”

“‘They’?” Her mother asked, tilting her head around but also stowing her phone back in her pocket. “The locals, or the government?”

“Uh… hm.” Ann didn’t really have an answer for that immediately.

It was a good question. The locals seemed… content the way they were, really. So keeping hordes of tourists and nosy people from seeing the aliens? Totally possible - but how would a sleepy beachfront town be able to keep one person from blowing the whole secret wide open?

Okay, it could have been the aliens, using alien technology and secrets. _ But Futaba said that this place wasn’t showing up on Gaggle Maps… there’s got to be somebody out there in the government or something who’s keeping this a secret. _

_ But why the heck would aliens come to Earth in the first place… _

Shrugging, Ann walked into the still under construction mini-metropolis, before stopping to talk to one of the passing people. “Hey, do you have any restaurants here?”

The gem - a Biggs Jasper, for anyone who knew her that well - shook her head. “Sorry, miss human. All the restaurants are down in Beach City. But we’ve got a greenhouse that grows food if you’re hungry!”

“Eh... “ Ann’s stomach wasn’t growling in the slightest, but she was a bit puzzled by this. “How do you get calories, then?”

“...What’s a calorie?” Biggs asked, looking confused. “Er, if you want to ask about human stuff, you should probably go ask Steven.”

“Steven?” Ann blinked. “Okay, where can I find him?”

“I’ll show you!” Biggs Jasper grinned. Walking off, Ann hastily followed her.

“Hey, Steven!” Biggs Jasper called, waving to a young man as she walked into what appeared to be some sort of central square for “Little Homeworld”. At first glance, as far as Ann could tell, it looked sort of like a human town square might. Come to think of it, more than a few of the buildings that she had seen looked remarkably similar to human structures.

Were these aliens - “gems”, they apparently called themselves - imitating human building methods?

Or... was it the other way around? She would have to ask - and not just for Futaba, she was dying of curiosity now herself.

“Hey there!” The voice coming from the young man in front of her, who her combat reflexes had absently noticed walking her way, brought Ann out of her own head.

“Hey! You’re Steven, right?” Ann replied, holding her hand out for a handshake.

“Yup, that’s me!” He grinned, in a way that for once seemed to reach his eyes. “I’m Steven Universe!”


	8. Learning New Things (can hurt really badly)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are not all well in a place that isn't paradise.

**20 Days until Palace Raid.**

Futaba Sakura really should have been asleep, and she knew it. Even if it was currently summer vacation, Sojiro had found her more than once sleeping past noon because she had been up late the night before and lectured her for it.

She had even been planning on going to go to bed at a normal time for once.

Well, semi-normal. Midnight was not a normal sleep time and she knew it.

Then, Ann had called her to say that she had found aliens and any traces of sleep had vanished.

Now? Futaba was _ obsessed_.

Classified government files that she really should not have had access to (but which weren’t that heavily guarded or subject to heavy penalties if she ever got caught) were gone through. Old files in the more “united” servers for several countries whose languages she didn’t speak and had once analyzed with things like Gaggle Translator were gone through, for the many references to “rocks” that hadn’t made sense at the time (but which made a lot more sense now that she knew about rock-based life forms).

Hard light. Solar-powered ALIENS!!

Futaba was nearly drooling in glee. And the time-delayed Japanese translations of the ongoing conversation she was getting over Ann’s phone, no matter how rough, were even more valuable. She was getting live updates from a human who seemed to be well-informed enough about these aliens that -

No. Wait. Ann and - Steven, right… were talking. About aliens. Futaba absently reached for the coffee mug that she had made herself after sneaking over to LeBlanc. Summer Break or not, she was not going to miss a second of this live-update, as her friend gave her this live update on ALIENS!!

  
  


“So, your name’s Steven?”

“Yeah. I mean, sometimes people call me other stuff, but… I’m just Steven, most of the time. Steven Universe...” Steven sighed, resting his head on the counter of the table.

“Are you doing okay?” Ann asked curiously.

“I guess…”

The reply felt odd to Ann, but it wasn’t like she had never felt the same way. Especially after they’d stolen a Treasure.

And considering Igor’s warning yesterday, there was a chance that she would be doing it again soon.

By herself.

God, her life sucked at times.

No, that wasn’t the right way to look at things! She could help someone soon. Some jerk needed their heart stolen, Igor had… well, he’d implied that.

She’d have to figure it out.

  
  


Sometimes, (okay, most of the time these days), Steven had no idea what he was doing with his life.

After the end of his run at Little Homeschool, well… he’d just been drifting. His garden was doing well, but… he didn’t need to spend the whole day there. But he couldn’t spend the whole day in his house, just waiting for his father or the gems to come so that he could try to spend some time with them, and he didn’t want to bother Connie too much when she was studying so much, and Lars was offworld…

Maybe Ann could help him for a while. He needed to branch out and make more (non gem) friends anyways.

“So… you live here? With all these gems?” Ann asked across from him, catching his attention. (He hoped that she hadn’t been talking before).

“Yeah!” He grinned, forcing a smile to his face. “I helped build Little Homeworld!” _ And everyone’s ignoring me now even after that. _

“Uh, cool. I guess. So… has anything big been happening lately? Anything here or in Beach City?” Ann couldn’t exactly ask Steven if he knew who in Beach City had a Palace, but… 

“Oh, not much.” Steven grinned. “Well, there was that incident at the beginning of summer when Spinel came with a giant injector and tried to destroy the world, kill me, and mind-wipe all of my friends…”

Ann’s mouth fell open. Steven didn’t notice.

“Oh, and then there’s that new special ability I learned about where I turn pink and can hurt people really badly if I’m not careful, and that time where Pearl and mom’s first Pearl nearly got mindwiped after I freaked out and used my new power by accident and cracked the room up, then two of my old enemies came back to spy on me, none of the gems took me seriously before they kidnapped my dad and tried to kill me again, then the gems treated me like a kid for a whole day even though I’m sixteen years old now… and now all of my friends are moving away or ignoring me to have their own lives without me and I panicked for no reason and put up a dome that nearly crushed everyone inside it after I spent two years in space with a bunch of dictators trying to reform their empire because none of them thought they could do it without me just because I’m the son of their only pleasant member who was my mom and died...”

Suddenly, without warning, Steven actually listened to what he was saying. 

If Ann hadn’t been listening carefully, she would have sworn he had stopped _ breathing_. She didn’t say a word, and the silence was somehow deafening. 

“Uh, don’t worry, though! It’s all over! Everything’s fine now!” Steven hastily added, plastering another smile on his face.

The silence continued.

_ Oh no… I scared her away, and now I’m going to be alone all day, and everyone will know that I did and the government will investigate because she’ll tell them and- _

“Steven… do you want to hang out for a while?” Ann’s face was filled with concern. Concern that left Steven terrified.

Why would she be concerned for _ him? _

“Uh, I’m fine! You should probably go-”

“Steven, my parents are looking through Little Homeworld right now. They’ll be fine. If nobody’s hanging out with you and you don’t have anything to do all alone… it sucks. I… I barely ever see them, so I can’t talk to them, but I’ll have plenty of time this month!”

“But if you barely ever see them-”

“I talk to them all the time over the phone, Steven! I’m used to it…” Ann sighed. “But I haven’t made any new friends in a while.”

This was true. Her family’s housekeepers her parents had hired and the rest of the Thieves and Shiho were all that she needed, mostly. Even if they couldn’t always get together, she could still call them whenever she wanted. And she did.

But new friends were never a bad thing.

  
  


On the other side of the ocean, Futaba Sakura sat, mostly forgotten by her friend Ann in favor of Ann’s new friend Steven.

Futaba herself was in a similar mindset, though. 

She had mostly forgotten about what she had been interested in in favor of Steven.

“I’d tell him he needs help if I was there…” she muttered to herself. “Seriously, he needs help, just…” 

Futaba stopped talking.

“Like… I did…” she finished in a dead tone.

Without further ado, she started to scramble for her phone.

Ten seconds later, she was on, and the Metaverse Navigator was up and running.

“Steven Universe.” She stated, speaking as clear and calm as she could.

Well, no. She wasn’t calm. But she could fake it.

_ Candidate found. _

_ “FUCK!” _

A few seconds after she yelled, another yell came in reply.

“Futaba, if that computer and your phone aren’t off when I get in there, you’re going all day without them tomorrow!”

When Sojiro arrived in her room twenty seconds later, Futaba Sakura was already wholeheartedly fake-snoring away.


	9. Bursting Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two outcasts, shunned for their appearances and neglected by their families, bond.

**Twenty Days until Palace Raid.**

Futaba waited for several minutes after Sojiro had called her - and entered her room. Carefully, listening to everything - to make sure her snooping father didn’t try to eavesdrop.

And right as she was certain that she was safe, her phone rang with a text buzz.

AT: _ Futaba? There’s apparently something these gem people use to get around called a Warp Pad. Have you ever seen something like this? _

The picture that came a few seconds later had Futaba hastily muting her phone, and taking a quick look.

But Sojiro’s footsteps coming down the hall made her know that muting her phone hadn’t happened in time.

FS: _ Can’t talk now, gotta go. Talk to you later, sorry! _

Ten seconds later, after powering her phone truly off, and setting it to the side, Futaba started to fake snore again. A few seconds after that, Sojiro opened her door, looked in, and frowned, before closing it again. Futaba made no move to pick up her phone.

Thirty minutes later that didn’t involve her picking up that phone, she would transition from fake snoring to real snoring.

Ann had known Steven for less than a day, but she already liked him more than most of the people she knew. Besides the other Phantom Thieves.

And she was also already worried about him.

“Steven, are you sure that we can’t just fill up a spray bottle and leave it on the table?”

“No. I have to do this.”

“Steven… they’re just playing volleyball. It would let you do a lot more if you could just let them heal themselves-”

“NO!”

Before Ann could say another word, Steven had somehow taken several steps in three seconds, and was standing in front of her.

“I - I NEED to heal them! I have to! It’s-!” 

Steven seemed to realize what he was saying, and stopped. Before Ann could pull herself together enough to reply, he started backing away, the pink covering his cheeks fading away. “I’m sorry!”

“Steven, are you okay? I - I know a good therapist, I think he speaks English, maybe he could help you.” Ann offered. 

Calling in Dr. Maruki - and possibly Adam Kadmon - might be overkill for most people. But when it came to helping superpowered teenagers with lingering trauma, he had plenty of experience.

“No! I - I’ll be fine. I don’t want somebody else to have to deal with my problems.” Steven replied, going back to his chair. “You can go - uh, go to Funland! You’re not banned from the rides there or anything.”

Ann decided to not ask why he had mentioned that. But… well, the volleyball game wouldn’t last too long. It shouldn’t, at least. She could just wait, and then the two of them could go there together!

  
  


“What happened to the rollercoaster?” Ann asked, looking confused as she stared at the ride in question.

It looked mostly fine, but… where were the carts?

“Er, I’ll tell you later. It’s… related to a job fair I tried to hold that went badly.” Steven looked guilty as he said it. 

Ann decided that pressing further would be a bad idea. “Okay. So… what do you want to do?”

“What do you want to do?” Steven asked. “It’s your vacation…”

Ann blinked. “But you live around here! What’s fun to do?”

Steven blinked. “Well… there’s a cliff near here that we can go to where there’s a great view of the town…”

“That does sound fun! But let’s go on rides first! It’s on my parents!” Ann grinned, already reaching for her wallet - the one her parents had given her for the trip.

“No, I can-” Steven began to speak.

But when he saw Ann offering him two hundred dollar bills, and the two she was holding as well, he went silent.

He knew when somebody didn’t need help.

“Wow!”

Even through her concern, Ann couldn’t help but agree with Steven. The view of Beach City from up here was beautiful.

“It’s… amazing. You can even see Little Homeworld from up here!” Ann still felt weird mentioning that name. And also that the gems seemed to have enough warm memories of a past tyrannical location to name their new home after it.

She’d have been happy just putting Kamoshida out of her mind forever - but she supposed that the location itself wasn’t the problem, as much as the people themselves were the problem. She could relate.

“Yeah… I haven’t seen this enough lately.”

“Because you’ve been busy, I guess?” Ann assumed. Given what she had seen of Steven so far, it seemed like he’d been involved in “Little Homeschool” for a long time, before he’d resigned. Or retired.

But… it really seemed like he wasn’t having as much fun as he could have been.

“Well… yeah. Then I was away for about two years…” Steven sighed. “Uh, sorry. I shouldn’t be bothering you with this!”

“It’s fine, Steven!” Ann grinned. “It’s… honestly, the whole alien thing is just so new to me. It all seems amazing, almost!”

Steven’s face darkened. Ann didn’t miss this. “Yeah… I spent two years just dealing with gem stuff and barely any time on Earth, so I guess i’m just kind of tired of dealing with it.”

“Two years away from home?” Ann looked shocked. “Uh… wow. I’d probably go crazy if I spent two years away from home without seeing anyone I knew.”

“The gems and Connie came to see me! Well, sometimes.” Steven looked down sadly. “They… they’ve all got their own lives these days…”

“I know what you mean.” Ann felt memories of Shiho pulling to the surface. They made her wince. “I… one of my friends moved away a while ago. She was… my only friend, for a while, honestly. Everyone else was... well, I made new friends, but they were the only ones who really treated me normally.”

“Really?” Steven subconsciously felt himself… shift. “How did everyone else treat you?”

“Well, I’m a quarter American, and Americans are… well, er…”

“Looked down on?” Steven guessed. That seemed to be a theme, for “outsiders”.

“Well, yeah! But, er… they’re also seen as more… sexually active, I guess.” Ann felt herself almost wince as she spoke. And just like that, Steven went into a new mindset. 

Specifically, mortification. “Huh?!” Pink - not the pink of his new “form” - covered his cheeks.

“Uh, yeah. I got tons of… well, I’m not going to go there!” Ann declared, turning her mind away from the many different propositions and assumptions she had needed to deal with over the years. “Shiho... she was… honestly the only person I could talk to. My parents were only there about half the time. Everyone else… they just put me on a pedestal. I couldn’t really connect to anyone else except for the housekeepers.”

Steven was quiet. Memories went through his head, of the last two years of all the people he’d met. They were all gems, as a rule. And he’d rarely met - or bonded - with any of them. It had just been planet after planet after planet… meeting new people, fixing things… and almost nobody who’d wanted to get to know _ him. _

Only a few of them had wanted to know anyone besides Steven “Pink Diamond”. (Like those two Jades he’d met at the Ball, that Pink Lace Agate who used to work for Pink Diamond, an Iolite who he’d helped guide to Little Homeworld, and those Off Colours on that one planet - who he’d helped settle elsewhere, and start a settlement besides Little Homeworld for the “outcasts”. This one only meant for those who had been “rejected” by the system originally - despite his arguments. But they had made an exception for him, at least). 

He hadn’t gone to see them in a while, actually. Maybe they could give him some advice…

“...I get that.” He admitted. “I… never went to school at all until Little Homeschool started up. So I mostly tried to hang out with the adults in town that were still around when I left the house. And my dad couldn’t leave the car wash while he was working, and the gems were usually on missions or in their rooms. I mean, I could usually hang out with dad. And… I really wish I could have seen everyone more.”

Ann felt her heart soften even more. “I… get that. But… you’re all done now, right? There’s no more need to go out and deal with the aliens off of Earth, right?”

“Yeah, but that just leaves me to deal with everyone _ on _Earth!”

Steven’s suddenly-harsh tone caught Ann off guard. “Uh, what-”

But Steven didn’t hear her. Ann just listened, in shock as her new sort-of friend started ranting. “-and Garnet always acts superior even though she’s failed tons of times, it’s like Pearl falls apart every time something comes up, and Amethyst-”

_ What the heck? It’s… it’s like he’s a different person now. The second the gems came up, he’s ranting, like… _

“-and even after I did all this and stuff keeps going wrong and everyone keeps treating me like a kid! Nobody asks me-”

Ann’s brain suddenly flatlined.

_ It’s like he’s trapped. _

And when the phrase “trapped” came to mind, she felt herself flash back.

Back to the bottom of Mementos. To the countless cells, of people whispering the burdens that they felt that society’s expectations had placed on them.

A society that from what little she had gleaned had been similar to Japan’s. Within two seconds, she was on her feet. “Steven? Do you need a therapist?”

Steven’s rant cut itself off midsentence. “Nope! I’m good! I don’t need help!”

“...Okay.” Ann didn’t press it any further.

Steven grinned. It seemed forced to Ann. She wasn’t sure if it felt forced to Steven.“Great! Well, it’s late. I’d better head home… you want to hang out with your parents tomorrow? I was going to go on a road trip for a few days. And it’s getting close to dinnertime…”

“Okay… uh, wait!” Ann blurted, pulling out her phone. “What’s your phone number?”

Steven blushed. “Uh, I have a girlfriend already!” 

“No. I… I just want to stay in contact. I’m going back to Japan in a while, so… you want to exchange numbers? We could stay in touch that way.” Ann offered.

“Oh! Sure!” Steven grinned, this time far more naturally. 

A few exchanged numbers later - and a test call between the two of them - both Ann and Steven were satisfied.

“Well, I hope you do well on your trip.” Ann said, her smile brightening up the world like her fire could Shadows. Only less lethally.

Steven smiled back at her again. And the two of them walked down the hill together.

Back in her hotel, Ann's mood dampened considerably, as she sat on her bed.

“Please…” Ann whispered as she opened her phone.

The Metaverse Navigator app opened. Her breath caught in one last prayer - to God, to Izanagi, to anyone else, deity, angel, Igor, or otherwise, who would listen.

_ A soul is at risk. _

“Steven Universe.” She spoke clearly, fear in her voice.

_ Candidate found. _

As the app gave the mechanical confirmation she’d been dreading, and the world warped - or rather, distorted - ever so slightly, Ann felt her heart and her shoulders drop as one.

Flopping back onto her bed, she felt dread run through her.

And thirty minutes later, when she was eating dinner with her parents, her phone buzzed.

As she took a look, her heart sank further.

It was from Futaba. It was made of a single sentence.

_Steven has a Palace._

She typed in her reply.

_I know._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ann and Steven are very close in terms of who they are. 
> 
> And Ann has had more success and support working through her (not as numerous) problems.
> 
> Here we go. The Palace storyline will start soon.


	10. Checking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann finds her way into the Palace.

**Nineteen Days until Palace Raid.**

“...Earth?”

_ Conditions have not been met. _

Ann sighed. “Gem space?”

_ Conditions have not been met. _

Ann sighed again.

Guessing Palace keywords wasn’t the biggest issue, most of the time. As long as you knew enough about the person who ruled the Palace, that was.

Well, it wasn’t like she had no time to guess them. But the sooner she got it done the better.

“Little Homeworld?”

_ Conditions have not been met. _

“Homeworld?”

_ Conditions have not been met. _

“The Universe?” She asked next, half-joking. But internally…

_ Conditions have not been met. _

“Phew…” She sighed. At least Steven wasn’t _ that _screwed up.

But still… “Beach City?”

_ Conditions have not been met. _

“Ugh! What is it…” Ann muttered, slamming her hand down on her face. She thought for a few seconds before the answer became clear. “I’ll go ask people…” 

If Steven was as popular around here as she thought she was, she was bound to find somebody sooner or later who could give her some better advice.

“What, you want to know about Steven?” The apparently two-gemmed Gem in front of Ann grinned. “Sure! Ol’ Crazy Lace’ll be happy to talk about him!”

“Great! He showed me around yesterday, and… I heard he was going on vacation for a while, so I wanted to know more about him so I could be a good friend when he got back!” Ann gave a mostly-convincing grin. But her typically bad acting was assisted by two factors.

One, gems were extremely literal and straightforward, and could be worse at spotting deceit than humans if they didn’t have experience.

And secondly, it was (mostly) true.

“Well, what do you wanna know? If you want to help Steven, I’ll be happy to help.” Crazy Lace Agate grinned.

“Well… what does he do with all his free time, usually? I don’t really know much about him - so I wanted to know if he’s got anywhere that he likes to go! So I could treat him or something when he gets back.” Ann asked, the not-quite-a-lie falling easily.

If everything went well, and the Shadows of Steven’s Palace were weak enough for her to handle alone (and it was a Palace, Futaba had double-checked Mementos for her), maybe she could actually take him to whatever place he might like to go by the time he got back!

“What places does he like to go? Hm..." Crazy Lace Agate scratched her chin, pondering.

"I was hoping I could take him out. I mean, not like a date! Just a friends thing.” Ann hastily added.

“Well… I don’t think he ever really leaves Beach City anymore, most of the time.” Crazy Lace Agate replied. 

This caught Ann’s attention. “But… he doesn’t have a job. What does he do?”

“Well, he used to stay here at Little Homeworld all the time! Helping with Little Homeschool and everything, but he left a while ago, after graduation. He… apparently lost control of his powers and created a huge barrier by accident that nearly crushed everyone up against him.” Crazy Lace’s face drooped a bit. “I… I’m not too sure how he’s been doing since then.”

Ann felt her concern increase. “Has he gone anywhere since then?”

“Well, he left a bit ago - I think he was going to go stay with a human friend! Her name’s… Connie, I think? But she’s pretty much the human friend he leaves Beach City for, I think. Otherwise he just hops on a Warp Pad when he has to go places.” Crazy Lace shrugged.

_ Human friend? Okay… _Ann didn’t know what to think about that, so she shrugged. “What was he going to do with her?”

“I dunno. He didn’t say, really.” Crazy Lace grinned.

“Okay… thank you, then.” Ann guessed that this was… well, she could ask about Steven’s time spent offworld. He hadn’t really talked about it to her. Maybe that signified that his issues could be originating from that? All of their previous targets hadn’t really talked that much about the sources of their problems or distortions. 

But that could be because most of them were criminals who were hiding something, and most of them also spent a lot of time in the areas that were their Palace in the Metaverse. Shido might have been the only exception (and that was only because she had no idea how much time he spent in the Diet Building before he briefly became Prime Minister).

_ I’d better ask around more. I’ve got nothing else to do today, and mom and dad wanted to explore this place too… _

With the knowledge that should could easily spend a few hours walking around before she figured out Steven’s keywords and entered his Palace, Ann headed back towards Beach City.

She would need snack foods.

“Okay…” Ann wasn’t sure how she should feel, as she sat down at Fish Stew Pizza an hour and a half later, her order already in the oven.

On one hand, it hadn’t taken her even half an hour to figure out where Steven’s Palace was located. “Beach City _ and _Little Homeworld” hadn’t been hard after she remembered the keywords to Kaneshiro’s Palace and how they were stymied before Ryuji accidentally came up with “All of Shibuya.”

On the other hand, maybe she should have focused on getting into the Palace sooner, rather than wandering Little Homeworld again.

But it was done now. All she had to do was work out what Steven saw Beach City and Little Homeworld as. Considering his past remarks, she already had a few guesses. But she would have to wait until she ate lunch first.

So she might as well start thinking of more possibilities.

_ Mental health center… nursing home… hospital… Psychiatric services… clinic… Ward… _

A few minutes later, when lunch arrived, Ann stopped repeating the many different similarly-themed guesses she had come up with as Jenny came out with her lunch.

“Here’s your pizza!”

“Thanks!” Ann grinned as she pulled the food to her - she would have more pocket money from the Palace soon, so she wasn’t too worried about spending more. “Oh, this is great…” she muttered, as she ate cheerfully. “I’ve been walking around all morning talking to people…”

“What have you been talking about?”

“Well, I’ve been asking about Steven, mostly.” Ann replied somewhat carelessly.

Jenny frowned when she heard this. Ann didn’t notice, since she was still eating and mostly focused on that.

If someone from outside of town was focusing on Steven... She’d have to tell the gems. Possibly.

After heading into the outskirts of the city, and checking around her to be sure nobody was there, Ann made her first guess.

“Hospital!”

_ Candidate found. _

Ann grinned. First try! _And here we go._

_ Beginning Navigation... _

And as the familiar "ripples" spread over reality, Ann blinked. Her outfit hadn't changed yet. That wasn't surprising, though. Steven didn't seem like the sort of person who would see everyone as a threat. Unless it took too long for her to steal his heart...

_Well, I won't let that happen!_ Ann swore to herself.

As the landscape began to solidify again, Ann took a look around. Then, she blinked.

The ground was... dead. Bare soil and rock, and... there was the hospital.

It was pretty small, compared to the hospitals in Tokyo, but that was hardly a fair comparison. She couldn't see much more from here, though. It wasn't as far from her as Futaba's Palace had been, at least.

Or as hot as Futaba's Palace had been.

And behind her, looking back, she could see what appeared to be Beach City - that, or Little Homeworld. The two were seemingly melding together over the horizon.

Well, that wasn't her concern. Her concern was-

Barreling towards her!

Ann didn't even think as she called Celestine. "INFERNO!" And without further thought, she launched the fire blast straight at the Sonic-like orange blur.

It barely slowed down. Ann swiftly directed Celestine's two men - and Celestine herself - to intercept it, even as she charged to the side and pulled out her whip.

Then, pain hit. Gasping, Ann dropped to the ground. It felt like a Shadow had punched her right in the ribs! This thing was definitely not a weaker Shadow.

But the odds were super low for her to have run into any Shadows outside of the Palace itself, which probably meant... _ A cognition. _

And considering what Steven's life had apparently consisted of, probably a gem cognition.

Calling up the energy for a Diarama, spreading it over her ribs and summoning Hecate back to her, Ann took a look at her opponent.

"Well, what's _this?"_

As the spindashing cognition came to a halt, she - and as a gem, it was definitely a she - got up to her feet. It didn't escape Ann's notice that her enemy was seven feet tall.

She was tall, orange, had a gemstone over the place where her nose should have been - and she was emanating a lot of power, even to Ann's combat-Persona senses.

"Another pathetic human here to get help from that helpless hybrid?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Ann meets Jasper! Her first obstacle, and a cognition outside the Palace where Shadow Steven helps people.
> 
> This probably won't end well.
> 
> EDIT: (Oh, and Xm? This is 91).


	11. The Clash of the Outcast - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lives of both the Phantom Thieves and the Crystal Gems seem to involve a lot of near-death experiences.

** _Nineteen Days until Palace Raid._ **

It took Ann fifteen seconds to realize that this fight was not going to be easy.

The second where her first Agidyne got plowed through by the massive gem - when she wasn’t even spindashing - was probably the exact second of her realization. If you wanted to be precise.

She didn’t even see a burn! Well, the gems didn’t seem to be fleshy like humans, but that was not a good sign no matter how you looked at it.

Now, she was currently dodging strikes or having Celestine parry them with her hair, in between trying to get some distance from the gem cognition.

She didn’t even have a gun for ranged combat! Not exactly the best situation to be in -

“Guh!” Ann winced, nearly tripping for a second. Jasper delivering a massive blow to Celestine’s left arm was probably the cause. “Get off!” She yelled. Before the cognitive gem could continue the attack, Ann had released an Agidyne from Celestine, sending the orange gem flying backwards.

A second later, Ann had already touched herself, a Diarama spreading over her, as she watched Jasper similarly get back up.

Ann didn’t lose heart, despite the fact that she didn’t seem to be too heavily damaged.

“Heh. So the human has some bite to her… it’ll be fun when I crush you.” the orange woman grinned, smashing one fist into the other.

“Who are you?” Ann asked, carefully stepping backwards as Hecate took up a position between her and the gem. Slowly, she started to concentrate, more and more. Thankfully, this woman seemed like she was the type to monologue.

She didn’t disappoint, and laughed haughtily. “I am the Ultimate Quartz of the gem Homeworld! The greatest soldier of Pink Diamond ever made, Jasper!” 

Considering that more than a few of the Homeworld “immigrants” she’d met had preceded their name with a “facet and cut/cabochan”, Ann wasn’t sure what to think of the fact that this Quartz hadn’t. But before she could ask a question on that angle, Jasper had already started charging.

Ann didn’t miss a single beat. “Dormina!” Almost midstep, the massive warrior slid to a halt on her feet. As she charged up a superpowered Inferno, Ann noticed something. 

Oddly enough, even when she was snoring, Jasper was still upright.

Oh well. 

As her strongest attack charged up, Ann took a step back, eyed the area around Jasper, and noticed two more figures incoming.

_ Great, she called for help?! _

Now ignoring the still-asleep Quartz, since she knew she could let her sleep and come back to her later, Ann took a split second to alter the ‘composition’ of her fire blast to a more “widespread” version, then fired off her attack.

The results were particularly impressive.

It was worth noticing that, among the Phantom Thieves, Ren and Ann were the only two of them with Fire based-moves. The Wild Card and the strongest magical member of the team - even after many other Thieves had joined them.

What this typically meant was that when a Fire spell got cast by a Phantom Thief, whoever they were fighting was going to distinctly feel that fire. 

And when Ann had Concentrated long enough, it was even more potent.

And this occasion was no exception.

The field of effect of Blazing Hell, less than a second after Ann’s attack struck home, _ melted _. Cognitive rock became liquid, cognitive water evaporated, and the air grew heavy with a haze from the molten earth. If there were any plants there, they had died the first millisecond it struck. If there was anything “alive” there in Steven’s cognition, it almost certainly wasn’t alive now.

Blazing Hell had gotten its name for a reason. 

The two newcomers were only a few feet away from the field of effect of Blazing Hell - and there was no way for them to stop in time.

Two screams rang out as they charged in. Ann didn’t take her eyes off of the pool of liquid cognitive earth anyways. Especially since she could still hear somebody’s voice. 

Several seconds later, her suspicions paid off. As the laughter continued - and a single red-and-blue figure walked out of the inferno - Ann couldn’t help but notice that they didn’t seem to have dissolved.

And they didn’t seem to have any burns.

An Agilao went flying.

The opposing cognition definitely noticed it when the fireball hit home.

But a problem arose. 

Specifically, it didn’t actually _ do _ anything to her.

“Ha… ha… HAHAHAHAHA!!” After a few seconds, the strange Shadow-like creature started laughing hysterically - they didn’t even seem to have noticed Ann was fuming. “Woo! So Ruby’s heat resistance _ does _carry over to wittle ol’Bluebird!”

As soon as she heard the word “resistance”, Ann winced. _ Maybe I should have gone for backup before I got in here… _

_ ...As if anyone would believe me. _

Well, it was too late to worry about that, right now. She had to win this fight. 

If she couldn’t even make it into the Palace… she wouldn’t be able to help Steven. She couldn’t let that happen!

Well, she could fix that. Before Bluebird could start charge towards her, she had already launched another move, through both herself and through Celestine. Two lines of sleep magic - another set of Dormina, or rather a Lullaby - lanced out. Both of them hit home - one on Jasper (whose snore was encouraging) - and the other on Bluebird herself, just as Bluebird started to fly towards her, water wings coming out.

And Bluebird swept right through it without slowing down, pulling out a sword made of ice.

Ann’s eyes widened, but before she could receive any cuts in a serious manner, Celestine’s hounds lashed out again.

“Who - are you?!” She hissed, already charging up an Agilao.

The strange gem - wait, did they have _ four legs?! _\- Just laughed. Then, her face grew more serious. “Once, there were two gems, loved by all.”

Ann, realizing that her opponent was starting to monologue, took a hasty look at her pool of SP as she let her Agilao dissipate. Considering she’d already launched a Blazing Hell and an Inferno in rapid succession… she wasn’t looking too good at the moment. The fact that neither of her opponents seemed to be that heavily injured yet despite being hit by her strongest moves wasn’t looking too promising either - and so was the fact she didn’t have a weapon on her. And Celestine, despite her boytoys, wasn’t much better at fist-fights than Ann, and the only other member of the Thieves she was stronger than physically was Futaba. 

And that was mostly because she actually exercised for modeling...

But the cognition across from her wasn’t even trying to attack as she continued her monologue, and didn’t even seem to be checking whether or not Ann was attacking, so she had a bit of time to think - and Concentrate again.

_ Okay, think. Jasper’s asleep, they’re busy talking to themselves. So they’re both resistant to fire or can ignore it outright. What do I have that could... _

_ ...duh. _

_ “Fire Break.” _Ann whispered.

Normally, she didn’t bother with saying the names of her techniques when she used them. And especially considering she barely ever used this technique in particular, when all of the other Thieves could cover any enemy who was resistant to her Fire spells.

But alone…

Well, now it made a lot more sense why she had it all.

Red lines quietly drew themselves in the air, around the still-sleeping Jasper and Bluebird Azurite, who snapped out of her monologuing trance almost immediately.

“HA! Was that supposed to do something?!” Bluebird snarled, flying forwards - through the Fire Break spell.

And as she flew right next to the slumbering Jasper, Ann smiled. And cast.

This time, as the Blazing Hell hit home, both Jasper and Bluebird definitely noticed it.

“AAG-HHHHH!” 

“I-YAGGG!”

Ann listened with perhaps too much satisfaction as the two cognitions _ finally _ stopped shrugging off her attacks. _ I should probably talk to Doctor Maruki about this… _

As the two of them stumbled out of the burning pool, Ann was already starting to Concentrate for another round. She’d better be certain.

“You… want to do it?” Bluebird asked, reaching out one of her hands towards Jasper.

“I… will not lose… TO A HUMAN!” Jasper screamed, charging forwards and ignoring the outreached hand.

Ann retaliated instinctively, an Agidyne sending the charging orange gem crashing backwards. “So I guess those burns are just an illusion, huh?” She felt perhaps a little too secure with herself, as she began to Concentrate yet again. She had maybe enough for one more Blazing Hell and a little more in her. She’d have to head back into the real world after this to recharge.

But she would win this first.

As Jasper flew backwards, to Ann’s surprise, the other gem caught her.

“I… I won’t lose…” Jasper gasped, reaching out a hand.

Ann fired off Blazing Hell a third time.

In the split second before her attack landed, something changed.

Specifically, the enemy she was facing.

A massive cloud of smoke filled the air, from the now-molten earth. But it couldn’t conceal the giant that had formed.

She was reddish-orange, with splotches of brown and blue-green speckled around her body. Ann couldn’t help but notice that all three of the gems Jasper and Bluebird had possessed.

Oh, and she had six legs, like a souped-up centaur, and three arms - one protruding from her _ chest - _and three eyes.

And she was nearly as tall as the gym roof in Shujin Academy.

For a split second, everything was quiet. Ann used that split second to call back Celestine to be in between her and this new opponent. And to notice that her enemy was not limping as much as Jasper or Bluebird had been. Even without the six legs taken into account.

Then, the giant three-gem - person - started laughing. The laughter was deep, and resonating enough that Ann could almost feel the vibrations affecting her.

_ ...If my knowledge of anime and my instincts are both correct, I should probably start running now. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only realized while I was writing this chapter that while Fire Break is almost useless most of the time in the main Persona series, since you’re fighting as part of a team… what happens if you’re fighting alone? And an enemy is resistant to your spells? Suddenly, the Break spells become a lot more important. So suddenly, Ann poses a threat to Jasper and Bluebird Azurite despite their resistances, especially considering she’s the strongest magic-user the Thieves have besides Joker. So… I decided to come up with something else to make sure things don’t get boring.
> 
> By the way, there’s an actual explanation for why Jasper can be affected by Sleep and Bluebird wasn’t! I’m not going to tell you what it is just yet, though. You get a round of applause if you figure it out.


	12. The Clash of the Outcast - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann has learned a lot from being a Phantom Thief. 
> 
> And one thing from that lot, is that when you are overpowered and exhausted on enemy turf, is that "determination" is at times just a load of hokum, and that the best plan is to cut your losses and run to fight another day.
> 
> EDIT: Hecate has been replaced with Celestine.

_ **Nineteen Days until Palace Raid** _

Ann took one further look at the giant facing her now. Then she felt around in her SP pool.

And she remembered that her Fire Break had apparently stopped affecting this new enemy.

_ Okay… panic time. And running time. _

As the supersized being started to curl up, Ann sent Celestine forwards to intercept them and turned around to head for the exit to the real world to do just that-

“HAA!”

Later on, Ann would describe the feeling as though every single cell in her body erupted in protest simultaneously. Like everything in her that could feel had suddenly decided, at the same time, to be solid blocks of _ pain. _

Behind her, through their link, she could feel Celestine collapsing. 

Ann was fairly sure that her Persona taking most of the hit was the only reason she could even do so much as moan.

Then, as her Persona returned to her, her form collapsing, Ann managed to look behind her.

The giant gem was still spindashing - and if Ann had to guess, she’d apparently spindashed through Celestine.

And she was heading _straight for her_.

"Dormina!”

The massive cognition turned off midmovement - jetting away from Ann and the lance of sleep magic. _ Well, it’s better than getting crushed... _

The aches of pain in her body disagreed. She did her best to ignore them, especially since her new enemy had taken the time to circle around, and had apparently come to a halt about thirty feet away from her after ceasing their spindash.

Ann took another look at them.

The spindashing, plus the… wings that were now appearing… led her to a conclusion. Jasper and Bluebird had fused.

..._ great. I’m gonna die at the hands of a Dragon Ball Z supervillain. _

Then, the chuckling started. 

“Heh… you put up a good fight, you know. Never thought I’d have to fuse again… especially with _ them _ .” The giant fusion chuckled. “Especially not for you, I’ll admit. I never thought a _ human _ could be this tough, I’ll give you that.”

_ Great, they’re even _ acting _ like a Dragon Ball supervillain... _

Wait. 

She might be able to use that.

_ Dragon Ball Z villains almost always gloat when they have the upper hand. And get distracted when they are, and they’re almost all super proud of themselves. _“Uh… if I’m gonna die… could you at least tell me who you are?” Ann asked, managing to somehow fight through the pain enough to flop over onto her back, while gathering up whatever SP she still had. 

After a quick “look” at her reserves, she knew that she had enough for her impromptu plan.

“Heh. You want to know the cause of your demise? I am-” The giant fusion paused as Ann started gathering energy. “I am… I am…”

As the fusion began arguing with themselves, Ann blinked, her power focus briefly forgotten. _ Did I hit a weak spot in their brain or something? _

_ Wait - focus on escape. Ask questions about psychology later. _

Ann carefully raised her feet in the air ever so slightly, and lifted her upper back off the ground as well. Considering how much her body still ached, she wasn’t sure that she could have moved it any further even if she wasn’t trying to be stealthy.

_ I hope she doesn’t notice… Probably not too much to worry about there. _

“-No, we are NOT going to be a Quartz! Or a warrior! It’s not fitting with an Aquamarine involved!”

_ Yeah, not much to worry about. I guess they got Bluebird’s desire to monologue. _

Ann didn’t focus any further on the still-debating fusion. Save for the minor level of attention that would ensure she wasn’t about to agree and get back to crushing Ann without her getting some forewarning.

_ Diarama. _

Healing magic spread through her body, and slowly, the pain started to recede. Mostly.

She could focus on getting away now, and that was just what she would do. She hoped.

_ I really should have tried out what Ozai and Azula were doing in Avatar more. _

Focusing fire to her feet and her hands, Ann could feel a minor heat buildup start.

And just as she started, the gem fusion seemed to have come to a decision - and she grinned at her. “Know that you will die at the hands of… Sillimanite!”

“MARAGION!” Ann screamed.

Sillimanite immediately withdrew her outstretched arm, and took a defensive posture. Mostly, her hands went up to protect her three gemstones. Since they were all on her face, well - Ann’s target was clear.

At least, if Ann had known that targeting the gemstone would kill a gem.

And if she had been aiming at Sillimanite in the first place.

Fire shot from her limbs, and Ann began to rocket across the ground. If she had been aiming _ up, _she probably could have been like some of the really good firebenders in Avatar - she could have gone flying without a jetpack.

But she lived in Tokyo, which was very heavily populated and also didn’t think superpowers existed. So sadly, she couldn’t do this in the real world without people asking weird and _ very _pointed and intrusive questions.

“GET BACK HERE!” Sillimanite roared, and started to run after Ann. Ann put more power into the flames that were firing out.

Still, slowly but steadily, Sillimanite was starting to get closer.

But before she could get within twenty feet of the still-rocketing away Phantom Thief, the sensation of reentering reality stole over Ann.

“NO! GET BACK HERE AND DIE FOR ME!”

But as Sillimanite’s hand grasped in futility at the vanishing thief, Ann shivered.

_ I hope I never run into these people in reality... _

As she came back into reality, Ann realized that she had wound back in the field outside of town that she had gone into Steven’s Palace from.

Also, the grass was on fire.

And so were her shoes.

“Agh!” Yelping as she stopped firebending, Ann hastily got to her feet and started to stomp on the flames. A few minutes later, after the fire died out, she grinned with exertion for a few seconds.

Then, the pain of nearly dying and only making it thanks to a combination of running away and healing magic hit her, and Ann flopped back into the grass almost instantly.

_ Okay. First day of infiltration is over. I… saw Steven’s hospital a mile or so away. I guess next time I should go over to Beach City and enter from there. _

_ But what if I just wind up on the outskirts again? _ A small part of her mind pointed out. _ What if I run into Sillimanite again? _

As she stared at the sky, Ann really wished that she would be able to come up with an answer to that.

_ First, let’s try entering from just Beach City instead of out here. Hopefully, I can get into the hospital from there... _

_ ...And if that doesn’t work, it’s time to panic a little. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Ann is definitely going back into the Palace sooner or later. But she's going to be making plans before she does that...


	13. Thinking about the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann makes plans.
> 
> EDIT: Chapter has been edited so Ann has Celestine instead of Hecate.

_ **Nineteen Days until Palace Raid** _

After dragging herself away from the no-longer-burning field of grass, and pushing through her pain enough to make it to the beach, Ann grabbed a chair and all but collapsed into it.

Sunbathing sounded so good right now. Especially since moving made everything hurt. 

She didn't think she had gotten anything broken by that parting shot that had destroyed Celestine, but until she got enough energy for a few Diarahans... She should probably just lie around. Sunbathing sounded good.

Not dwelling on how she hadn’t even made it into Steven’s Palace sounded even better.

Sighing, she laid back and relaxed. The evening sun washed over her - and the dying heat from the day combined with the sea breeze was enough to burn her worries away.

At least, most of them. She needed to scout, to look around...

_ Well… I need to heal before I do anything else anyways. _

She’d have to wait here for that, though. She had the energy for a Dia or an Agi right now… but definitely not a Diarahan. 

And since being worried sick about somebody and other such negative emotions, actually hindered SP recovery, she had to rest. A Diarama would be easy, but a Diarahan would be best.

A soda would make it faster, but at the moment the pain throbbing through her made a convincing argument that she shouldn’t move any more than she had to. Especially considering she wouldn’t be able to go back into Steven’s Palace until she figured out a way past that cognition…

Ann sighed, and laid back, letting the sunlight clear away her worries.

It was time for a nap in the sun. That seemed like the best option for healing.

_ Sorry, Steven. I’ll have to worry about you later. _

_ I can’t help you with your Palace if I can’t take care of myself... _

  
  


“Ughh…” Sighing, Ann felt herself awakening from her drowsing session.

Pulling out her phone, she took a look.

_ 8:39… _

Putting a hand on her chest, she channeled a Diarahan. The feeling of her still-aching muscles finally relaxing and leaving her pain-free was one of the most wonderful things she had felt that entire week.

That still left her phone on, though.

_ Ooooh… I wonder if mom and dad tried to call. _

Shrugging, she typed in her password, and something became evident. 

Her parents had texted her. (Specifically, her father had said they would be going to the aquarium tomorrow. Her mother had said - _ Ann, we’re going back to the hotel. Feel free to stay out as long as you want, just get back before 10:30). _

And Futaba had texted her too.

FS: So, I am fairly certain that right now is good evening for you… it’s good morning for me! Answer when you can. How’s that Palace going?

Ann winced, and started typing.

Ten minutes later, the story had been told, and Futaba had yet to reply.

_ I hope she comes back soon… _

Her wishes were granted, as the phone beeped.

FS: Sorry! I was eating breakfast with Sojiro, I just finished reading everything.

FS: So, you ran into a Beef Gate Miniboss right off the bat? Oh man... That isn't good.

Ann sighed a little.

“That isn’t good.” Seemed like a bit of an understatement.

She had about a month or so left… and if she hadn’t figured out a way to steal Steven’s Treasure, or talk down his Shadow by herself by then, both of which required that she get past Sillimanite… 

Sighing, she started typing into her phone again.

AT: What's a Beef Gate Boss? I haven't heard that term for a video game before.

FS: It's not a video game term!

AT: ...it's not? 

AT: That made the most sense to me. Considering it came from you.

FS: I will ignore that... Anyways, a Beef Gate is like, a game's way of restricting you from getting somewhere with a really powerful enemy. Basically, you have to level up until you can beat them if you want to be able to go into the areas they guard.

FS: So, you’d better go and start training! Or beating up Shadows, same thing there.

Ann felt dread fill her at that particular statement.

AT: And where am I supposed to “level up” around here?

FS: ...Mementos?

Ann frowned, then went to the Metaverse Navigator app, inhaling as she tapped the app in question.

"Mementos."

_ Destination cannot be reached. _

...Yeah, that was just what she had been expecting.

_ Nothing. _

AT: I just tried. No can do. Guess I’m too far. 

AT: Unless I find another Palace near here that doesn’t have Shadows or cognitions that strong I can train on… I might be stuck.

FS: ...Okay, that’s definitely bad.

AT: You think?! I don’t want to leave him like this! 

AT: I don’t think I would want to leave anyone like this... But Celestine went down with one hit, and that cognition… fusion… is really fast, and it looks like she’s immune to fire. 

AT: And she healed all of her wounds or something when Jasper and Bluebird… joined up, I guess. So yeah, I’m stuck right now...

There was a pause for more than twenty seconds on the other side of the texting app.

FS: Okay, immunity or resistance to your main element in every form, a free-action full heal when she goes to phase two… yeah. That’s a pretty clear sign.

FS: She’s not a Beef Gate! She's a Puzzle Boss.

Ann blinked.

AT: Explain, please. I play video games, but you’re way better with the terminology.

FS: It’s not Video Games terminology, it’s trope terminology.

FS: But anyways, a Puzzle Boss is a boss that you just can’t beat with brute force. 

FS: They’ve got a weakness that isn’t readily apparent that you have to exploit to beat them! And since you said the whole area outside the hospital was a wasteland with nothing there, meaning environmental hazards are out and you have to get past her to get to the hospital, there’s got to be something or someone in Beach City that can tell you about her weakness!

AT: …Futaba, you really need to stop describing the world like it’s a video game.

FS: Never!

AT: But… I don’t really know much about gems. Maybe there IS something they do know that could give me an edge. These people all live with gems, after all.

FS: You say the world doesn’t work in video game terms one minute, and the next you bow to my logic. Mwehehe!

AT: I just don’t have any better ideas right now!

AT: And really, if you don’t know enough about somebody or something, go ask people who do know about it. That’s just common sense.

FS: Uh-huh.

AT: But it might have to wait until tomorrow… it’s late here. And I am super tired, I haven’t had dinner yet… I’ve been sunbathing for a while now. Got a Diarahan in… might need a Diarama or two to be okay.

FS: Having your Persona get destroyed sucks that much, huh?

AT: Yeah… and doing stuff in the real world isn’t as easy.

AT: But anyways, I’ll start asking around tomorrow about how gems work. Maybe I’ll ask mom and dad to ask too, or if they found out about anything I didn’t know.

AT: They were pretty interested too.

FS: It’s ALIENS! Why wouldn’t they be?!

FS: I still can’t believe I am missing out on this! Ugh, I’m so jealous…

AT: I’ll bring you an alien souvenir if I can.

FS: REALLY?! PLEASE DO! PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!

Ann smiled at the younger girl’s exuberance, even over their chat.

It was good to know that Futaba was still herself.

AT: You want any aquarium stuff tomorrow? 

FS: Ugh. We have an aquarium here in Tokyo! Boring. BRING ME ALIENS!

AT: ...I’ll bring you alien SOUVENIRS. 

FS: Fine.

FS: I’ll see if I can dig anything up that could help you.

AT: Thanks. I should probably head to the hotel soon… I’ll ask around here too.

FS: Tell me if you find anything about the ALIENS! 

AT: Okay. Night, Futaba.

FS: Night… for you… I guess...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really think of this until recently, but it always seemed to me like Ann kind of got... short-shafted, when it came to characterization in Persona 5. It's not that I dislike her or anything, but she... never really had that many opportunities to stand out after the first two Palaces, it seems.
> 
> Which actually makes me think about how Steven was written in Steven Universe, at least before Future. It seemed like he... he did stand out, but you never saw his "dark points", it seemed. Or at least, they were never the focus.
> 
> And because of that, I'm going to be taking a sort of... bend, with Ann in this story. 
> 
> You'll see what I mean. Don't worry, I do not plan to put Ann through emotional torture like they did with Steven in Future.


	14. Curiosity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Thieves learn the truth. Well, the new truth that wasn't a truth they were aware of before.
> 
> (The point is, they had no idea aliens were real before - well, they might have believed they could exist, but they didn't really think about it).
> 
> ...Just read the chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a while, but I’m pleased with how it came out. It took a while - but it's also extra long!
> 
> I am not sure how the timezone difference works here - working out everything down to the minute when the two different parties are 13 hours apart… time zones are a headache just waiting to happen. Especially with the International Date Line (and how that might work with the “X days until they start Stealing his Heart”).
> 
> Also, due to me finishing my playthrough of Persona 5 Royal, I might be going back through the earlier chapters to add a few things in here and there or edit stuff. Just so you aren’t weirded out if you find things you think weren’t that way before.

** _Eighteen Days until Palace Raid._ **

“Mrrgghh…”

Ann muttered sleepily as she felt herself drifting out of dreamland - the fact she didn’t really want to wake up was not helping.

She had been having such a nice dream - something that had definitely been inspired by the “Sun Room” had shown up again without Igor or Lavenza, and she’d been cooking up a storm of sweets and eating them as fresh as could be, as they came right out of the oven.

And then she had taken a cookie, made it bigger, and gone grinding down one of the tramlines like the main characters had in that “Red Riding Hood” movie.

People’s minds tended to make odd connections when they were sleeping or getting close to sleeping. 

Well, not “odd” connections as much as “connections they wouldn’t make normally.”

Dreams were one example of this. The fact that the Velvet Room could be reached when you were sleeping was another way that dreams could make unusual connections. (And from what Ann had heard, in Ren’s case it was how he’d originally arrived in the Velvet Room, even before he went to Kamoshida’s castle with Ryuji).

Despite her reputation as a bit of a ditz, Ann was no exception to this. It helped that she was thinking about how to get past Sillimanite as she went through the slow process of getting out of bed when it was comfy and she had no pressing reason to.

_ So fire doesn’t work without Fire Break, I’m not sure about my whip, and my gun’s horrible without something from a model shop because I didn’t bring my normal gun, which would raise weird questions and might not work on her anyways. What else can I do to... _

And then, it came to her. 

And Ann grabbed her phone, started typing into her private chat with Futaba, and smiled.

AT: Hey, Futaba? I have a favor to ask.

AT: Send me all the Magatamas that you guys have - and a few of Haru’s vegetables too if you can.

AT: Thanks!

  
  


** _Elsewhere, later..._ **

FS: Hey guys? We could use a meeting after you’re all done with whatever. Ann needs our help.

RS: Help? But she’s on vacation!

FS: Yeah - in theory. But our work knows no border or boundary. 

MN: ...Please tell me that you don’t want all of us to fly to America to help Ann with a Palace.

FS: I don’t have the money for that. Haru might, though!

HO: I would really rather not go all the way to the United States for one Palace. And doing so would raise a great many questions for all of us.

RA: You mentioned she needs our help. 

RA: What’s stopping her from just powering her way through everything? 

YK: ...An excellent question.

FS: Part of why I called the Meeting.

FS: It’s kind of hard to explain in text.

FS: I know we can’t exactly go over ourselves, but Ann could really use some help.

MN: I suppose I can meet everyone at LeBlanc later...

SY: I was going to go see Doctor Maruki later today, actually. After his shift is over. To tell him how I’ve been doing and see how his research is going. 

SY: So I can’t go to the meeting without not meeting him, but should I call while I’m there?

FS: You do that!

FS: Actually, we could probably use his advice.

FS: And he’s gonna want to hear this too.

  
  


Takuto Maruki was, as anyone who knew him well could tell you, a very nice man.

His niceness hadn't stopped him from trying to create a dream world where everybody on Earth would have eventually - at best - become like the people in the Human Zoo after he lost his mind. In fact, his niceness actually contributed to his decision to do that. 

But it was still an undisputed fact that he was very nice.

So when he heard a knock at his apartment door on his weekend from his main job as a taxi driver, and opened it to find one of the people who had stopped him from fixing everyone’s problems on his own, in his own way, standing there, he smiled and stood aside to welcome her in.

"I'll admit I wasn't expecting this, but it's good to see you. How have you been, Sumire-chan?"

The redhead who had gotten her mind twisted into thinking she was her dead sister semi-voluntarily by the man in question smiled at him as she stepped inside. “Well, I’m doing better. I'm still glad rhythmic gymnastics doesn’t involve big leaps and stuff so I don’t have to start explaining to everyone why I can jump seven meters in the air.” 

Maruki chuckled. 

The story he had heard about Sumire having to explain _ that _to her coach amused him to this day.

Then, his expression grew more serious. “And your depression?”

Sumire’s face grew a little more serious too. “Well… the antidepressants help. And so does talking to a licensed therapist, but you know that as well as I do.”

Maruki smiled and went to sit down. “And so does having a Persona, I take it.”

“Yeah!” Sumire smiled. “You know… If we weren’t worried about too many bad people getting superpowers or figuring out how we do things, I’d say it should be an alternative treatment.” 

Maruki couldn’t help but nod. Even though he was crippled compared to what he had been before in the dream world, Adam Kadmon remained a comforting presence in his mind..

“And you know what else helps?” Sumire asked, cutting into his thoughts.

“...Going on Palace and Mementos raids, pummeling Shadows, and selling the loot?” Maruki couldn’t suppress his joking tone, or his smile.

“You know it!” Sumire couldn’t help but grin back.

It might not have been precisely right, and was kind of immature, but beating up things that had tried to kill her and forcing evildoers to turn themselves in felt good.

“Speaking of, how many people sent requests for mental help to the Phansite this weekend?” Maruki added.

Sumire grinned. “A lot. We got almost thirty done on our last trip to Mementos!”

But helping out people who were suffering like she, Doctor Maruki, and Futaba had been suffering felt just as good in its own way.

Maruki smiled. “That’s good to hear. Do you want any snacks?”

Sumire smiled and withdrew a lunchbox from her backpack.

Then another.

Then another...

“I brought lunch for myself.” Sumire stated, gesturing to the three separate lunchboxes.

“I see…” Maruki muttered.

Even after all this time, even knowing she was a gymnast with a very high calorie diet and an even higher metabolism to boot, seeing Sumire’s appetite in action never ceased to amaze him.

Then she finished by pulling out a fourth one. “And there’s some for you if you want any, but I wouldn’t say no to some apple juice. Oh - and Futaba called a meeting. I think she’s waiting for me to call.”

“Well, I suppose my latest discoveries can wait until later.” Maruki shrugged, walking towards his kitchen. It wasn’t like he had anything more than theories on what he was currently doing, anyways - how Shadows could be manifested based not on the whole of one’s psyche, but a specific, focused, part of it. A potential way to deal with mental illnesses and “communicate” with “them” more directly. His job as a taxi driver kept him from investigating everything very deeply.

Maybe he could ask Sumire if she would ask the other Thieves later…

“Discoveries? Well, you can tell Futaba during the meeting. I’m sure she’d love to hear about it.” Sumire smiled kindly.

Maruki chuckled. “Well, she did apply to be my assistant.”

And honestly? Having someone who understood cognitive psience - who actually _ believed in him _despite knowing everything there was to know about him, and who still tried to support him - as a student?

It felt good. To know he didn’t have to fix everyone’s problems.

And that the people he chose to help wouldn’t have to rely only on him.

As he walked out, apple juice in hand, he set some down by Sumire and some by him, as she finished typing into his laptop (the Thieves all knew his password) to set up a conference call. “Okay… that should be it.”

“Hey there, guys!” Futaba’s voice coming through the computer let them both know that Sumire’s admittedly-imperfect computer skills had not failed her. “Okay, we’re all here! Wait - you don’t have a video call set up.”

Sumire looked rather ashamed. “Ah, I don’t… really know how to set up a video call…”

“Give me a second!” Came Futaba’s voice.

And five seconds later, Futaba’s face appeared on the laptop screen, with a stoic-looking Ren next to her.

Sumire hadn’t touched anything on Maruki’s laptop. Nobody really noticed. 

Or at the least, nobody really commented.

“So, Futaba, why’d you call us all here? Some big discovery Ann made?” Ryuji was the first to comment. “You didn’t say much.”

“That was on purpose!” Futaba’s grin was audible. “Doctor Maruki, Sumire, I’m sending you two a file. Feel free to look at it after you listen while I blow all your minds to smithereens.”

Yusuke was, surprisingly, the first to speak. “After everything we have gone through, Futaba, I doubt that there is much left that can surprise us.”

Futaba’s grin almost split her ears. “Mwe-hehehehe!”

  
  


“ALIENS?!”

The Phantom Thieves, delvers of the Metaverse, the saviors of Japan, who had saved the _ world _at least once (twice, depending on your point of view), plus Maruki, were all looking at Futaba dumbstruck.

Because even by their standards, this was shocking.

“You’ve gotta be shittin’ us… you’re shittin’ us, right Futaba?” Ryuji was the first to speak up.

“Nope!” Futaba grinned, and held up her phone, and tapped a “send” button. 

Two seconds later, an email notification popped up on Ren’s laptop. And a long distance away, in Maruki’s apartment, a similar one appeared.

Almost simultaneously, Maruki and Ren tapped on them as the others, save Futaba, crowded around them.

“Take a look! One video - and many pictures! Kindly volunteered by Ann Takamaki under the condition that I not spread it across the world wide web. Take a look and see for yourself!”

Ann hadn’t explicitly _ known _she had given Futaba permission to use her phone that way, but whatever.

  
  


** _Five minutes later..._ **

“I… they don’t seem to be cosplayers in these…” Maruki spoke, a stunned tone apparent in his voice.

“Is this why the group chat seemed to be so busy the night before last but nothing had changed in the morning?” Haru asked, frowning.

“Yup! Sorry guys. I deleted that part of the chat. I wanted to surprise everyone!” Futaba grinned.

“...Well, you certainly succeeded.” Makoto stated.

“All right, then. We have weird gem aliens who live on the east coast of the United States in secret… at least… hey, do they live anywhere else?” Ryuji asked, frowning. 

Futaba shrugged. “I dunno if they live anywhere else. And actually, the people nearby seemed to know all about them from what Ann told me.” Futaba interjected. “Seems like they have for a while - and I think the US’s government is doing a coverup too. That town the gems all live in? I saw at least a few pictures where there were humans there too besides Ann and her parents, and they didn’t really seem like they were geeking out over there being aliens.”

“While I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting this… compared to everything else I’ve had to start believing in after what’s happened to me over the last few years, I don’t see any reason why aliens can’t fit in rather easily.” Maruki looked rather awkward admitting that over the video call.

Ren chuckled. It caught everyone’s attention. “After mind strongholds based on distorted views of reality, fake gods, their powers getting transferred to humans, conspiracies, and super-secret spy groups dedicated to fighting aspects of the human soul, why not aliens?”

“Okay, so… Ann found a Palace while she was over there?” Makoto asked. “And if you told us about these gems before you brought that up, I’m going to assume that the reason is because one of those gems has that Palace.”

“So non-human life forms can have Palaces? Curious… I wish I could delve into one myself.” Yusuke mused. “There could be so many new art forms, architecture styles, ways of thinking, so many things no human has ever witnessed…”

“Inari! You’re missing the point! There are ALIENS! Their art can wait till after we learn more about the ALIENS!” Futaba screeched.

“...Futaba-chan, not everyone is going to share the depth of your interest in aliens. Even if we are all curious.” Haru stated. 

There was silence for a few seconds, before Futaba turned her nose up, ‘hmphed’, and looked away from Haru.

The rest of the Thieves could hear a faint “...blasphemy…” 

A loud throat-clearing from Ren caught everyone’s attention. “Okay, let’s focus. Futaba. While this is cool - it’s not why you called us here, right? If there’s a Palace and Ann is going to try and destroy it, she must be having trouble, otherwise she wouldn’t have talked to you about it or asked for help.”

Futaba’s face dropped. A grimace now replacing her smile, she nodded.

“Okay. What does she need?” Ren asked.

“She texted me earlier - she ran into a miniboss right at the entrance, and she wants us to send her every Magatama we’ve got.” Futaba replied. “And I think I bugged her into asking around for weaknesses gems might have.” 

“Okay. So… enemy who we don’t know the weakness of, who we only have one person up against, who isn’t Ren. That ain’t good…” Ryuji stated.

“To say the least. Futaba, how important is it that we destroy this Palace?” Yusuke asked. “Is its master a threat to the residents of Ann’s vacation location?”

Futaba’s silence was rather puzzling. At first.

“...I don’t think he’s a threat to anybody but himself.” Futaba replied carefully. Then, an idea sparked in her eyes, and she grabbed her phone. “Give me a second. Then watch this. It’s… the Palace ruler.”

She didn’t say anything else.

She didn’t need to.

  
  


** _One Video later…_ **

Takuto Maruki’s apartment and Leblanc’s attic were both quiet.

Until Makoto broke the silence.

“So… he’s half-human?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s what I figure, from everything I heard listening in on Ann.” Futaba nodded. “And it seems like his mom was really important, and he got her job because she was his mom.”

“And the alien shitty adults all left him dealing with their crap and his mom’s crap because he’s her kid, they didn’t know how to deal with their own shit, and he couldn’t complain because they were his only family?” Ryuji’s tone was calm and blunt. 

Roughly as calm and blunt as the mace of a highwayman waiting in an alley as his target came within two feet of the entrance.

“You left out how he doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself now that it’s all been dealt with and how he says it feels like they’re all ditching him, but yeah.” Futaba’s voice was almost as calm as Ryuji’s.

The eruption was completely expected.

“Grr… RAAAGGGHHH!” Ryuji screamed, electricity weaving around his arms - and away from his phone.

“Siegfried!” Ren hissed, already moving. He grabbed Ryuji’s wrist without a second’s delay, as the electricity crackled and hissed.

And as it turned out, it wasn’t needed.

“Grr… agghhh… RAGH!” Ryuji screamed again. The electricity ran across his arms. 

But considering that his phone, clothes, and Ren were all untouched, even without the latter’s immunity to electricity, the screaming seemed to have already done what it was supposed to do.

Maruki’s voice, over the computer, was the first to speak up. “...are you feeling better, Ryuji?”

“...yeah. Yeah… I’m better now. Sorry.” Ryuji was still scowling. But he looked calmer.

Nobody made any move to blame him.

Makoto was the next to speak. “All right then. Here’s our current situation. Ann is currently in America, dealing with the Palace of Steven Universe, and she’s cut off from our supplies for the Metaverse that we keep here in Tokyo. And she’s run into an enemy that she can’t fight normally who can destroy her Persona with one hit. This is our current understanding of the situation in...” she trailed off.

“The town’s called Beach City.” Futaba supplied.

There was silence, as everyone nodded.

“A strange name…” Yusuke mused.

“Yes it is, but that’s beside the point. There is another question here.” Makoto spoke again. “What can we do that will help Ann get through Steven’s Palace?”

There was another silence.

“The last time I checked our stash, we had almost two dozen Beads from all the Palaces we went through.” Ren was the first to speak up. “We can ship them to her, and I doubt that anyone would think they were contraband, so they should get through security.”

“Ann-senpai knows how to use Diarahan… but I guess she can just bring everything back when she’s done over there? And using healing magic after every fight she takes a hit in would probably tire her out really fast.” Sumire said over the computer.

“Yeah. And she asked for Magatamas and vegetables too!” Futaba grinned. “Haru, send her some veggies!”

“Futaba-chan, I would love to send vegetables… but I don’t think it’s legal to bring vegetables into the USA unless it’s in a mass shipment.” Haru sighed. “Ann-chan might have to talk her parents into getting some from a private vendor. I’ve heard about the farmer’s markets they have there.” 

“Sending Ann her whip and her gun would raise eyebrows without a doubt. She will have to go without them. We should send as many of our supplies as we can to help her get through the Palace without our direct assistance.” Yusuke mused. 

Ryuji looked surprised, then grinned. “Hey… Do they let pets go unsupervised on international shipping?”

“What are you singling me out for?!” Morgana hissed.

“What, dontcha want to spend time with Ann?” Ryuji’s grin was almost sharklike.

“Mgrrrgg…” the (not-exactly-a) cat muttered mutinously under his breath. But he didn’t disagree.

“I’m not sure how Ann-chan’s parents would react if we sent them Mona-chan without explaining…” Haru stated.

“True. Sending help directly… might not be an option for now.” Ren stated. “But Ann’s strong. She can probably get through the rest of the Palace by herself.”

“Yeah! She said that the miniboss nearly died the first time she hit it head on with an attack after she hit them with Fire Break!” Futaba grinned. “She’s totally gonna be overleveled for everything else there! She just got rotten luck in who she fought first. And rotten luck that her endurance isn’t that good.”

“...This is coming from the girl who literally went comatose for more than a week after she got her Persona even though she _ didn’t do any actual fighting with it _?” Morgana replied.

“Shut up, kitty!”

_ “Anyways.” _Ren’s voice cut through the start of an argument. “Beads, Magatama. Simple. I can probably dig up a few Ofuda for her too. She’ll have to find her own vegetables, but there should hopefully be a way for her to get some at a grocery store or from somebody else. I can send some Revival Beads too, in case she runs into another Persona user… or recruits one. And we’ve got more than enough Hiranya to go around.”

“What about the ointments?” Morgana questioned. “A few of the physical ones could probably stop that cognition in its tracks pretty quickly.”

“And those… Goho-Ms, I believe you said they were called?” Came Maruki’s voice through the computer. “In case she needs to escape quickly.”

As the familiar haggling and discussion began - the intricacies of planning a heist - the Thieves (and Maruki) fell into a familiar atmosphere. 

An atmosphere of confidence. Of knowing that things were - you hoped - under control. That everything would turn out just fine.

Whether it was justified or not would remain to be seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the Phantom Thieves, being brought into the loop. And Maruki too - he’s still researching cognitive psience here, he’s just not hyperfixated on using it to brainwash people into being happy. He’s trying to use it to help people confront their problems more directly - so he’s working with the Thieves! And really, if Futaba wants to be a cognitive psientist like her mom… well, he’s the only one she knows at the moment, so she’s going to him as an apprentice.
> 
> As for Sumire’s depression, well - I don’t think that it’s accurate to say that getting a Persona solves all of your deep-seated psychological issues that easily. Futaba needed her entire Confidant to get more of a handle on talking to other people and getting out of her house. Her depression vanished because it was pretty much rooted in her distortion, it seemed. So my overall understanding is that getting a Persona doesn’t take your issues away (at least, not entirely). Getting a Persona allows you to acknowledge and start working on your issues - it grants self-awareness. As for whether you start working on those issues or not… well, if you don’t, you get someone like Akechi. So yeah, Sumire is doing a lot better than she used to, but she’s only about… 80% to 90% okay?
> 
> Ren didn't do much talking or joking, but he was in Leader Mode during this since the Thieves were getting thrown a big revelation without warning. And he didn't really get that much talk time (and he's usually characterized as not being too talkative, I think).
> 
> And I know that the Thieves aren’t being entirely fair to the Crystal Gems - but they don’t know the whole story, only Steven’s side of it. Which is, during Future, a side that is not at all flattering for Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl.


	15. Enter at your own will (and risk)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann has a plan. It's a fairly easy one, and if it works she's only given up a few hundred dollars the other Thieves can easily cover with their pooled funds (and if it doesn't work, she's screwed).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There has been a several-day time skip between this chapter and the last one. And a several month time skip to boot - yeah. My motivation to write deserted me for a while there. But here’s the next chapter, all ready to go! I might someday go back and cover the events referenced here (particularly the one where Ann meets Ronaldo), but that is a problem for another day.
> 
> On a side note, I have this story more or less all mapped out - and the only things missed that aren’t referenced here is that Ann’s parents took her to a few places around Beach City for family time, like aquariums and such.
> 
> And I think you will like this for one particular reason - it’s bringing us closer to a particular event that I have wanted to get out for a while, and that I think you will all like reading. I just hope I can do it justice.

** _Fourteen Days until Palace Raid_ **

“You want me to make what?”

Bismuth had gotten many requests for her work as a blacksmith ever since she’d reopened her “business”, from both gems and humans. They were usually fairly simple things that required a great deal of detail work - the wedding rings she had made for Ruby and Sapphire, while some of her proudest work, had been joined by others afterwards.

Getting a front row seat to those weddings and watching the joy on the faces of the bride and groom had been worth doing one or two of the jobs _ pro bono, _in her opinion.

(And she had been planning ideas for Steven’s wedding ring ever since she found out he was dating Connie).

(Well - that he would be dating Connie eventually.)

(If there was a gem in Little Homeworld who couldn't see they were head over heels for each other, she'd eat her anvil).

...The point was, people usually came to her for specialty work. Things that were hard to come up with, expensive, or just not easy to get.

It made her feel pretty good - a sign that she had moved on from the old days of doing whatever cut and paste building the upper crust wanted this week.

Mass production runs? Even without the feelings they brought up in her, those were pretty rare.

“This. Can you make it?” The blond-haired girl repeated to Bismuth, gesturing again to the sketch on her phone.

“I can make it, sure.” Bismuth frowned, still confused. “But... look. It’s not even going to _ do _anything, and it’s not a model or anything. Why do you need so many?”

Ann’s look of awkwardness might have fooled a Ruby, but Bismuth wasn’t a Ruby. “I’m… a collector! I know it’s weird, and pointless - but that’s just how I like this sort of thing!”

Bismuth didn’t really buy it.

But…

“Well, heck!”

She laughed.

“It’s not like I can say no to weird and pointless requests!”

That was practically what a lot of what she did now was based on, after all! 

She didn’t mind more of this “money” humans used, since they tended to use it to exchange stuff (bartering systems were interesting). 

And heck, it wasn’t like this girl could _ hurt _somebody with a bunch of metal springs with a rod stuck in the middle, right?

  
  


Connie Maheswaran had never really thought of herself as the “stealthy” type of person, to be blunt.

Or the “stalker” kind of person.

So following the Japanese-American tourist Steven had told her about through Little Homeworld, listening to her via careful eavesdropping (and asking the people she talked to what she talked about), was weird to her.

Connie normally wouldn’t have given a tourist a second thought, in Beach City - it was a tourist trap town, after all. And now that the gem monsters were growing less and less frequent thanks to the gems in Little Homeworld making a concentrated effort to hunt down and heal them all, business was booming.

Even a tourist from Japan was only a little weird. Compared to the strangeness that was her life, tourists from abroad were barely a blip on her “this is strange” radar.

But Ann had gotten herself abruptly moved up several dozen places on her list of “this is strange” when, just yesterday, according to the Micas, they’d seen her literally appearing out of thin air. And the fact Connie had seen her heading for her hotel room a few minutes after they’d seen her (thank Vishnu for clocks) with a noticeable swagger in her step that spoke of someone who was trying to walk off a lot of pain didn’t put her any lower on that list.

So, she did what any not-quite-correct in the head warrior would do.

She asked about what Ann had been doing.

And apparently, the party Steven had invited her to for the weekend (to celebrate her parental-imposed break from college studies), had featured “Ann” asking a lot of weird questions about Beach City and Little Homeworld. She’d even asked _ Ronaldo! _

(Ronaldo had been all too happy to tell her this. At length. With a recording of everything that Ann had asked about, and theories about why she’d asked it).

(Ronaldo really needed to get back to watching and reviewing movies, he was far better at that. Or at least not quite as annoying).

So now, with her second day in Beach City sadly not getting spent with Steven (who was apparently watching the reboot of Camp Pining Hearts with Peridot - she wouldn’t interrupt them, or join them), she had decided to follow her around.

Learning about how Ann had asked about gem disruptors was concerning - but Bismuth didn’t make those. 

It could have been simple curiosity, and the desire for a souvenir, that brought her to Bismuth’s forge. 

And more importantly, she was, from what she’d overheard at the front door, not telling Bismuth what she was planning.

So. Connie would have to figure out what Ann Takamaki - the apparently somewhat supernatural Japanese tourist - was going to do via observation and deduction.

And if that meant following her around until she got some answers or Connie could overhear her talking to somebody besides her parents on the phone, so be it.

  
  


_ I wonder if I could just put on a ski mask and interrogate her in a back alley… _

Normally, mafia-like methods wouldn’t be the first thing on Connie’s mind.

But an hour and a half of following Ann Takamaki around, listening to her _ speak Japanese _ (of _ course _ she’d speak Japanese, Connie _ didn’t know Japanese!) _to somebody she knew on the phone, and ordering her own food from the “food court” as she watched Ann eat her own lunch from Peedee’s “Hot 2 Tot” stand.

And she hadn’t really learned anything in all that time. The one time she’d gotten a look at her phone, when she’d been texting - Japanese again. 

The group chat icon had been a top hat on fire - but someone using the Phantom Thieves logo wasn’t suspicious, in and of itself. The only people she knew who _ hadn’t _heard of them in Beach City (thanks to Ronaldo) were either gems or Steven (who had the excuse he’d been offworld for the time they’d been popular/doing major things like targeting crime bosses and the guy who would have been the next Prime Minister of Japan).

Really, there was nothing suspicious about this girl - except the fact that she had appeared out of thin air, and had seemingly been fighting in Little Homeworld without anyone noticing or hearing anything. Connie knew that sort of walk she’d seen her doing well - it was the kind that came after a lengthy fight with gems or a particularly intensive training session. And asking her parents if their daughter had bouts of chronic pain, the only other likely explanation she could think of, seemed… kind of insensitive. And unlikely.

There was probably another explanation, but she was having trouble thinking of it.

Wait - Ann was moving.

Connie didn’t move immediately after her. She wasn’t that experienced as a tail, but Beach City and Little Homeworld weren’t big places - and Ann had been in Little Homeworld until a half hour ago when she came down here for lunch.

If she stayed in Beach City, Connie would be able to ask everyone what she was asking about pretty easily - and a tourist in Little Homeworld would be easy to follow.

  
  


“She got… what?” Connie asked, not hiding her confusion.

Bismuth shrugged. “A bunch of springs with a piece of metal stuck through the center. Not sure what the heck it means, but I used steel and copper to do it. She even paid me!” Bismuth grinned.

“That’s great!” Connie frowned as the last part of Bismuth’s words hit her. “Wait, have you not been paid before?”

“Well - mostly it’s just other gems who do that.” Bismuth shrugged, but this time in an ‘ah well’ sort of fashion. “And they all pay me back eventually! I’ve gotten metals, a few ideas, another Bismuth even came around and fixed my door for something I did for her girlfriend!”

Connie took a second as she marveled over how the gems had taken relatively easily to what was (sort of) communism.

Then again, it had been their race’s default state of existence for the last several millennia.

Bismuth abruptly got a sheepish look on her face. “How much is this, anyways?”

Connie almost choked on air when Bismuth pulled out two one-hundred dollar bills.

“A _ lot… _ what was she getting these things for anyways?!” Connie muttered.

“Well… she said she was a collector?” Bismuth offered weakly, shrugging. At Connie’s incredulous stare, she continued “Yeah, I didn’t really believe it… but it’s not like she could hurt anyone with a bunch of wrapped-up wire, right?”

Connie wished she could agree, and set back out through the door.

Ann Takamaki was up to something weird.

And she was going to get to the bottom of it!

  
  


Five minutes later, Connie was starting to regret her decision.

No wait, she’d gone past “starting to” - she _ really _regretted her decision to give Ann Takamaki time before she followed her.

Mostly because she’d gone to a field - halfway between Beach City and Little Homeworld - and was almost fifty feet away.

So, no listening in.

Well… had listening in really gotten her anywhere so far?

Reaching down, Connie grabbed her carrier bag. The one with her sword, medical supplies, and everything else she usually carried for a gem mission.

She had a feeling she might need it.

_All right. Time for a shakedown..._

As she got closer, Connie wondered what it was the she was doing with her phone.

Oh well. She just had to disarm her first...

_ Beginning Navigation. _

As the familiar sensations of entering the Metaverse stole over her, Ann pulled out the first Magneto Coil - or rather, electromagnetic coil.

And if her theories about the gem disruptors being electrical were right… she might have a shot at getting past Sillimanite.

And if not, well, considering her express-mailed Magatamas from Tokyo had gotten knocked away by Sillimanite, with their detonations failing to stun her (or in the cases of Electric, Psy, and Wind, had been dodged before they landed) - maybe a more widespread attack would do the trick.

She knew Sillimanite could be fast, but she had gotten "Bismuth" (which wasn't a gem, she'd discovered, how did they name themselves?) to make her a _ lot _of electromagnetic coils.

“HUH?!”

As she looked over her shoulder briefly, seeing someone she didn’t know - a girl with tanned skin and black hair - gazing around at the landscape in stunned confusion twenty feet or so behind her. 

Ann couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathetic nostalgia.

And if the Nav had pulled her in from this far away…

“THERE YOU ARE!”

She'd think about this later.

“No time to explain!” She replied quickly - the ground was already shaking as Sillimanite approached.

Reflexively, Ann grabbed one of her electromagnetic coils and chucked it in that general direction.

Wait…

“Here! Throw these at her!” Ann quickly ordered, running over as fast as she could and shoving the bag she’d thrown the coils into the hands of the very-confused looking girl.

“ARRGH!” came the perhaps too gratifying (she really should discuss that with Maruki) scream from behind her.

Ann took this as her cue to spin around, and release another Fire Break, completely ignoring the confused girl behind her.

She looked like she was about to protest, but she took a look at the now-twitching Sillimanite, noticed where her gems were, and decided her questions could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's hear it for Magatamas! And the items like them. In this case, Magneto Coils - an item that deals 50 Electric Damage to every enemy on the field.
> 
> (Seriously, this sort of thing saved my life in the battle with Okumura's Shadow in Royal).


	16. Conspiracy (is Theorist the right word when a lot of what he says is correct?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ronaldo Fryman is a nutcase. Everyone knows that pretty well.
> 
> But even if nobody ever admits it, he's a nutcase who's right a lot more often than you would think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wish I had gotten this out there yesterday, but here we go. Merry belated Christmas to you all, and happy holidays!

** _Sixteen Days until Palace Raid_ **

It had been a few days, and Ann was starting to get worried.

First, her parents had taken her to Empire City - and while that had been fun, she’d lost an entire day that she could have spent asking around about gems for something that could help her get past Sillimanite. She’d picked up a lot of vegetables from a farmer’s market to help her in the Palace, and a bag of coffee beans and filters (which her parents had been happy to pay for), so she would be good on magic levels as she went into the Palace

Assuming she found a way inside…

So far, her inquiries had turned up precisely nothing. Asking a gem about their potential weaknesses seemed like a bad idea - and while she had asked about their bodies, and now knew that they were made of “light” - this had also told her precisely nothing solid about their weak points besides that it would be a good idea to try out a Curse Magatama or two (Bless skills were “light” and Curse skills were “dark”, after all).

And throughout her questioning, it turned out consistently the humans of Beach City typically knew as much as she did about how gem bodies worked - that is to say, just a step above _ jack shit. _

There _ had _ been one guy, named Lars, who apparently was the resident expert on gem things who wasn’t a gem himself, because he had spent several months off Earth as a _ space pirate. _

Futaba was going to go into a coma from sheer “SQUUEEEEE!!!” when she heard that.

Not that it did _ Ann _any good, because he had apparently gone back to space before she even arrived… and his “Ex” of sorts didn’t know that much about them either.

So, the Magatamas would probably be arriving tomorrow, and if she didn’t find a solid weakness soon, she would probably lose her chance at beating Sillimanite, which meant that she was hosed - and so was Steven.

But Ann wasn’t so deep in her negative thoughts that she couldn’t tell someone was coming up behind her, and she started to turn around - only to stop dead.

“Greetings, fellow seeker of the unexplained.”

Ann couldn’t help but stare for a few seconds until her unconscious smacked her forebrain back into action.

The blonde hair that appeared to be gelled in the shape of french fries, the classical “nerd” glasses - they weren’t _ too _unusual. The mildly crazed look in his eyes - plus the words - were a little odd - and concerning. Those were only a (very small) part of why she was worried, though. 

For some odd reason that she never really understood, when she saw he was wearing a costume that appeared to resemble a bucket filled with fries with a face, Ann shuddered.

It took her a second to recover. “Um… hi. Can I help you?”

“Not really at the moment. But I can help you!” The young man grinned. 

This didn’t help Ann’s confusion. “Okay, but… who even are you?”

He looked around carefully, then shook his head. “Sorry. I have to remain incognito. Call me…” He paused.

Ann waited.

“...Deep Fry.”

He grinned.

“I ALWAYS wanted to say that!”

Ann couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping her throat.

“YOU THINK MY NAME IS HUMOROUS?!”

The young man’s deep and not-quite ominous voice that was an attempt at intimidation brought up a lot more giggles.

“BWAHAHAHA!!” No, scratch that, it was outright laughter.

Ann was practically bent over at the waist, the sheer _ randomness _of the situation - and this guy trying to be scary - just too much for her to take.

She had really needed something like this.

“Well, the more that you laugh - the more time you spend clueless to the true threat of the gems from beyond Earth - and their culture and weaknesses.”

The sudden change in tone caught her off guard enough to make her stop, though.

The human across from her took a look around - and seeing that nobody was nearby, continued in the same low tone. “This place is too public. Follow me. I’ll explain more elsewhere, fellow knowledge seeker.”

Without further ado, he walked off.

Ann, still slightly reeling from the sudden mood shift, followed him curiously.

The lighthouse at the top of the hill would make a wonderful set for a horror or ghost story, in Ann’s opinion. And the things it (probably this guy?) had filled it with weren’t exactly reassuring to look at - various documents, charts, and a large number of books devoted to no subject in particular (and a lot of them had scribbles across them in permanent marker). If she had looked a little closer, though, she would have noticed the Phantom Thieves of Hearts bookmark he had inserted into a "supernatural mind battles" theory book (with scribbles across the front reading "CAN STEVEN COMBAT THE PHANTOM THIEVES ON THEIR OWN TURF - THE HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS?? DETERMINE LATER."

So yeah, she should have been concerned. If this guy hadn’t given her a sort of “Futaba-esque, but even less concerned about people’s opinions” vibe. She understood how to hang out with Futaba, so she could probably talk to this guy.

And if all else failed, she had Celestine.

“Now! Follow me. I will show you to the gem section.” Ronaldo - she’d heard one of the locals calling him that, and they’d ignored his rage at having his “cover blown” - ran to a set of stairs. “I have stored it at the highest point of the city!”

Walking up the stairs behind him, Ann took a look around as she walked. This place seemed to be in fairly poor shape, to say the least. Ronaldo’s experience in this place kept him several feet ahead of her - Ann kept stopping to stare at several places where she could see outside through

But it was the first lead she’d gotten.

She kept Celestine ready in her head to pounce the second something seemed off, though.

“Let’s see… here!”

As she entered the room at the top, Ann blinked as Ronaldo held out a… pamphlet? Frowning, since it was too far away for her to get a good look, she walked over.

And as it turned out, the outermost flap was, beside the “Top Secret!” warning on the front (that was in _ Japanese _), solid black.

He hadn’t even included his name.

“You can take it, should you wish. I. _ Insist! _”

“Uh, thanks.” Ann’s baffled tone carried through as she took the pamphlet out of Ronaldo’s hands. “But what is this, exactly?”

“I am glad you asked! This is, after the many careful weeks of investigation and questioning I undertook to gather information for its creation, some of my finest work!” Ronaldo grinned. 

“It’s about gems?” Ann asked, turning it over.

If it wasn’t, then she had just wasted several minutes.

“Indeed. It is but one of several that I have prepared for the day that the government finally decides to reveal the existence of the gems to the general public… or the general public finally realizes en masse the truth that has been hidden right in front of them for countless years!”

“Only one of them?” Ann asked, curious.

“Indeed… but I am sorry. I must keep the rest hidden away.” Ronaldo nodded dramatically. “Until the day that humanity is ready… I must spread the truth around slowly. So that those who seek to keep us in the dark will not think that I am important enough to be silenced!”

Ann blinks. Then, she smiled. This guy was weird. But she knew weird pretty well - she lived weird. Weirder than this guy could probably ever imagine. “You mind if I stick around here for a while?”

From the way Ronaldo Fryman’s face lit up, she could already tell he would love it.

And (despite several attempts by Ronaldo to steer the topic to conspiracy theories that he realized eventually Ann knew almost nothing about), the two spent the next several hours talking about gems, Beach City, the history of both, and Steven Universe.

  
  


“So gems are vulnerable to… electricity?” Ann asked, the gears in her mind whirling along rapidly as she processed this new information from the pamphlet in front of her.

(It turned out that Ronaldo had pamphlets in Chinese, Japanese, English, Spanish, French, Swahili, Urdu, German, Hindi, Bengali, Russian, Portugese, Arabic, Indonesian, and Marathi. And that he had translated them himself, or so he said).

(She would have to see later if he had the more “harmless” type of distortion).

“Yes… and no.” Ronaldo spoke.

Ann was pretty sure that the pause he left in between there was for dramatic effect. 

  
  


After leaving a few seconds in for the two of them to appreciate the dramatic tension. Ronaldo continued.

“There is a gem leader known as ‘Yellow Diamond’.” 

There was silence.

After it was silent for several seconds, Ann decided that he was trying to get her to ask why.

“Why?”

In this case, it was probably easier to just give Ronaldo what he wanted.

“Because that is her name and designation.” Ronaldo replied.

Ann wasn’t sure how to respond to that, and stayed quiet as Ronaldo continued.

“While each of the four Diamonds of gemkind have power over a specific part of a gem’s whole, she in particular wields power over the body. And when she attacks other gems to disrupt their forms, or attempts to heal their bodily forms, what form do you think this power takes?”

“Electricity!” Ann grinned. Considering what she’d read…

And indeed, Ronaldo nodded. “Yes! While I have not determined the specific frequency yet… I know for a fact that Yellow Diamond has also reverse-engineered her powers, in the form of ‘gem disruptors’. And these have been widely distributed among the loyalists of their empire, in the past - the current political environment means that finding one is difficult at best, however.”

Ann took a second to wonder how one would get an illegal weapon in Beach City, then dismissed it as Ronaldo kept talking.

“So… in theory, electricity in general could be used as a placeholder to affect gems even if you don't have a... disruptor, you think?”

Ronaldo nodded. “Undoubtedly. I myself have used a simple taser to show gems as an example of our technology, and they have almost all compared its crackling to that of a gem disruptor!”

_ ...All right. _

She had her seeming “gem weakness”.

If all went well, the Magatamas would arrive tomorrow.

And she had the knowledge of a gem blacksmith in Beach City whose tagline was “We make (almost) anything!”, and had said she could easily reproduce the “magatamas” as long as she had an example.

It was time to restart her infiltration.

_ Ring! Ring! _

Blinking, she reached down to her phone, only to realize it wasn’t hers that was ringing.

“Uh - whoa! It is that late?” Looking up, Ann saw Ronaldo speaking into his phone.

And also realized that she was starting to fight the urge to yawn…

“Sorry, miss… I never really got your name?” Ronaldo frowned, realizing that he had been working with somebody he didn’t know the identity of for the last… 

Four hours?!

“I’m Ann Takamaki! Thanks for talking to me, Ronaldo!” Ann grinned, getting up and heading for the door. “I don’t think I’ll be able to hang out tomorrow… but I can hang out soon, I hope! See you later!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning for a while to have Ronaldo be the guy who tipped off Ann to how he could beat Sillimanite. Was I expecting him to become a friend of sorts with Ann? No, I didn't, but that is how it goes.


	17. The Doctor is Here! (And he really needs help).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fights are so much easier when you have the luxury of being able to plan in advance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...This took a while to write... sorry.

Connie had no idea what was really happening, but she’d been dropped into enough life-threatening situations to know when it was time to shut up and ask questions later.

And when you had a colossal fusion heading your way with an unfriendly look on their face, and somebody dropped a bag full of electromagnetic coils into your hands and told you “THROW!” in one of those situations, it was probably time to let your reflexes do the work for you, and assume they knew more than you do.

So, that was more or less the situation that Connie was in.

Out of nowhere, she’d been dragged into some sort of wasteland from a verdant field, where she had been told to start chucking things that should not have done _ anything _ , that were definitely doing _ something, somehow. _

She wasn’t sure how the electromagnetic coils had “exploded” when they hit the colossal gem fusion she’d been throwing them at. And she definitely wasn’t sure how the lightning was spreading out across her skin like it was a weakened gem disruptor (which wasn’t quite strong enough to poof her, sadly).

She had some idea, because of that, why the coiling electricity, exploding outwards for about 5 meters every time the coils touched something, was making the fusion twitch.

She wasn’t sure why the three gems on the fusion’s face all looked familiar (since she was pretty sure none of the gems she was thinking of _ with _those gem positions lived in a wasteland, and in the case of one of them, probably wouldn’t ‘lower herself’ to fusing with the other two anyways).

She _ knew _for certain that she had followed Ann Takamaki, and that the red-covered girl currently blasting the fusion with fire was probably her.

She had _ no idea _how probably-Ann Takamaki was shooting off fireballs like a superpowered Ruby or certain gem constructs, though.

She knew for certain that she really wanted to know how she was doing it, though. And if it was something that she could do herself that the gems hadn’t known about.

(She knew that superpowers didn’t solve everything, and being able to talk things out? Way better than fighting them out).

As probably-Ann’s fireball smashed into the fusion, releasing thermal energy over the part-Ruby, the resulting scream of pain was almost deafening (and considering Rubies were supposed to be _ immune to fire _, she really wanted to know how that was happening).

As she recoiled, Connie took notice again of the three gems on her face, and how they belonged to gems that she had personally met two of, and heard how the third had tried to kill Steven several times.

(...but sometimes, when it came down to the wire? When it was do or die - or you just wanted to have a good brawl to feel better? Or, perhaps, beat the living crud out of somebody you hated the guts of who had done the same to you in the past, despite the fact it wasn’t too moral?)

(Superpowers, at those times, were awesome).

  
  


“WHEN I GET MY LEGS AND ARMS TO WORK AGAIN, _ I AM GOING TO - _ ** _GAH!!_ **”

As a Blazing Hell washed over Sillimanite - her second spell, after the Agilao she’d thrown confirmed that her fire magic was working - Ann grinned. “Throw!”

Behind her, still wondering what the heck was going on, Connie Maheswaran tossed another magnetic coil at the colossal fusion.

It, again, detonated into ripples of lightning, crackling as the fusion writhed helplessly.

Calmly, Ann started to concentrate. “Okay, just - keep throwing those, please! I’ll explain after she’s gone, okay?”

“You mean, after we poof her?” Connie was chucking another magnetic coil even as she spoke.

“Poof?”

“Oh, right, you’re new around here…” Connie muttered to herself.

“Yeah…” Ann shrugged absently as an a Maragidyne went flying.

_ SHaaak! _

And missing. 

“They unfused!” Connie yelped, pulling back another electromagnetic coil and throwing it.

Eyeball fell to the ground writhing, electricity crawling over her form.

Unfortunately, she was the only gem that it happened to.

“Celestine!” Ann yelled, hand touching her mask and calling her Persona forth. (The appearance of a twelve-foot tall apparently-human woman who had two men tied up in her hair only raised more questions for Connie, but she knew to wait until later to ask). The colossal projection of Ann’s inner self flew immediately charged forwards, chucking one of her men at Jasper as the cognitive gem charged.

Even as she did that, Aquamarine flew towards Connie, grinning wickedly. Scowling, Connie grabbed her sword out of the bag - and absently noticing that Aquamarine didn’t have her wand on hand. _ Good. _

Even if how Aquamarine got here in the first place - and how _she'd _gotten here in the first place - was still a mystery to her.

  
  


“Head Doctor! We need your help!”

The voice over the speaker on his shoulder, as he observed himself working on the patients of the Intensive Care Unit, caught the doctor’s attention instantly. “**What is it now?! I’m busy**!”

“I know, yes, but we have a serious problem! Three outpatients are fighting outside the hospital! And it’s that troublesome trio to boot, they’re attacking two humans!”

A myriad of emotions flashed over the doctor’s face. Frustration, anger, fear, resignation…

And for some odd reason, hope.

“**I’ll get there as soon as I can**!”

  
  


POOF!

As her blade sank down, first through Aquamarine’s chest, and then through thin air, Connie couldn’t help but feel incredibly satisfied.

Turning around, though, she couldn’t help but feel annoyed with herself, when she saw probably-Ann holding her own against both Jasper and Eyeball, now that the latter had started moving again (and how fire was affecting them normally still wasn’t clear to her).

Aquamarine’s gem felt smooth, when she grabbed it and stuffed it into her pocket (she would have one of the Gems bubble it later), before she started to run for the magical flamethrowing catgirl and her guardian bubblegum chewing-Amazon.

_ I’ll think later about what it says about my life that I’m mostly curious about how a _ human _ is using magic! _

  
  


As another rolling fireball blasted past where she had been, Jasper touched down from her leap that had carried her over it, towards the blonde human that had been throwing fire this entire fight -

_ FWOOSH! “GAH!” _

-And straight into a fireball from the enormous maybe-human woman that had appeared out of nowhere after the cheater did something to pull her out of nowhere.

Bouncing backwards off the ground, Jasper scowled, already entering a spindash even as she touched down, shooting backwards before beginning a u-turn, then pulling a sharp turn. The feeling of heat washing over her - something that normally, she wouldn’t have noticed at all - told her that her new adversary had just missed her. With that in mind, she pulled another sharp turn-

“**Jasper, what did I say about fighting other patients**?”

-And before she could keep charging, or dodging, she ran into a familiar-feeling barrier. She snarled reflexively. “Get lost, brat! This doesn’t concern you!”

Turning her glare on him, Jasper tried to break the bubble she’d been trapped in through sheer force of will by glaring at him. Gem powers that required concentration could be disrupted by breaking that concentration - 

-But the glare he was throwing right back at her made it clear his concentration wasn’t going to be disrupted anytime soon.

Even as she absently noticed the two humans coming close together, and the useless duo who’d failed to help her getting smacked together into another pink prison, the darker-skinned human’s shock was clear.

“Steven?!”

**Author's Note:**

> Your questions will (probably) be answered eventually.
> 
> (Also, I had to upload this story a few times before it went through... weird).


End file.
